Researchers at the University of California and National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan have reported two 3D printing-enabled advances in energy storage: a zinc-ion hybrid battery that stores more than seven times the charge of comparable devices, and a low-cost, sealed test cell that delivers markedly more reliable lab measurements than the open-beaker setups most battery researchers rely on.
Published in the journal Small, both advances target the same goal: pairing solar and wind generation with storage that charges quickly, lasts for decades and stays affordable. Zinc’s appeal goes beyond abundance, it is simpler to extract and easier to recycle than lithium, advantages that could lower both the cost and the environmental footprint of stationary storage.
“The future of energy storage won’t be defined by a single technology,” said co-corresponding author Maher El-Kady, an assistant researcher in UCLA College’s chemistry and biochemistry department. “At some point, we will need to look for something to complement the current options for grid-scale energy storage. What we’ve done in this study essentially gives us zinc-ion hybrid devices that can store nearly one order of magnitude higher capacity.”
Research support came from a University of California Climate Action Seed Grant, Nanotech Energy Inc. and UCLA’s Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation.
A Porous Carbon Scaffold Loaded With Vanadium Oxide
The device combines two storage mechanisms. One terminal functions like the charge-holding component of a conventional lithium-ion battery, while the other relies on a carbon electrode of the type found in supercapacitors, devices prized for rapid charging, quick power delivery and long service life, but limited in how much energy they can hold because charge sits only on the electrode surface.
The UCLA-led team overcame that constraint by expanding the electrode’s internal surface area and infusing it with vanadium oxide, a high-capacity storage material. The carbon structure, patterned with countless microscopic cavities resembling a sponge or honeycomb, was fabricated through a 3D printing process in which a liquid resin hardens instantly under UV laser exposure. A subsequent heating and gassing treatment stripped the material down to conductive carbon riddled with open pores, which the researchers then coated with vanadium oxide via a chemical process.
The resulting surface area is vast: a single gram of the material, spread flat, would cover roughly 10 tennis courts.
“The method we used lets us build any 3D scaffold, layer by layer, and control its microstructure,” said co-corresponding author Ric Kaner. “We can actually have billions and billions of these tiny holes, producing an enormous internal surface area. That means we can store a lot of charge.”
Beyond the sevenfold capacity improvement over other capacitors, the device kept 82% of its storage capacity after 1,500 charge-discharge cycles.
A 3D Printed Test Cell for More Reliable Lab Data
The study also introduces a second innovation aimed at the broader research community: a 3D printed test cell for evaluating experimental storage devices. Laboratories typically rely on a basic arrangement of two electrodes suspended in an open beaker of electrolyte, since commercial glass test cells start at around $1,000, a cost that pushes budget-constrained teams toward the improvised alternative.
The open-beaker approach carries two flaws. Electrolyte gradually evaporates, cutting experiments short before devices reach their natural lifespan, and inconsistent electrode positioning skews measurements, complicating both accurate performance assessment and reproducibility.
The team’s printed cell features a sealed top that blocks evaporation and built-in slots that fix the electrodes at a set distance from one another. In comparative trials, standardized carbon electrodes tested in the printed cell retained 98% of their charge after 1,500 cycles, while identical electrodes in a conventional open setup failed within 100 cycles. The printed cell also produced more consistent readings of capacitance and resistance.
“It’s a concept that we hope can be useful to other researchers in the field by helping them obtain more consistent measurements and reliable data for their devices,” said first author Sophia Uemura. “One of the exciting things about 3D printing is how accessible it has become. In this case, anyone with access to a 3D printer will be able to make a test cell like ours and adapt it for their own work.”
Closing the Gap Between Supercapacitors and Batteries
The UCLA team’s strategy is to complement lithium-ion, not replace it, by attacking the trade-off between supercapacitors’ speed and batteries’ capacity. Low-cost resin 3D printing shapes the electrode architecture to make abundant, recyclable zinc viable for grid storage, while the printable test cell lowers the cost barrier that keeps many labs on error-prone open beakers.
The approach fits into a wider push to use additive manufacturing to rethink energy storage architectures. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University used aerosol jet printing to build silver lattice electrodes for lithium-ion batteries whose porous geometry allowed lithium to penetrate the full electrode volume, delivering a 400% increase in specific capacity and a 100% increase in areal capacity over solid electrodes.
Sustainability-driven efforts have followed a similar path. Scientists at Switzerland’s EMPA used direct ink writing to produce afully 3D printed, biodegradable supercapacitor built on a cellulose-and-glycerol substrate that withstood thousands of charging cycles, while the University of Manchester developed a printable MXene ink for prototype supercapacitor electrodes with high capacitance and energy density.
Taken together, these efforts signal that electrode architecture, not just chemistry, is becoming a primary lever in energy storage. UCLA’s contribution pairs that trend with cheap, abundant zinc. If it scales, it could reshape the economics of grid storage.
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Featured image shows 3D printed electrode with a hollow structure that expanded the capacity of hybrid zinc-ion energy storage devices. Image via Maher El-Kady/UCLA.
