Research Progress in Design and Manufacture of Graphene 3D Electrodes Based on 3D Printing Technology

Lithium ion batteries are widely used in aerospace, automotive, wearable flexible devices and other fields because of their high energy density, stable discharge platform and safe use environment. The current research of lithium-ion battery is mainly focused on the design and manufacture of thin electrode (<50 μm), whose low unit area load (<5 mg•cm-2) severely restricts the area specific capacity. Therefore, the manufacture of thick electrode (100-500 μm) will become the research hotspot of high specific energy battery in the future. 3D printing technology has a wide application prospect in the field of thick electrode manufacturing due to its advantages of customized forming complex electrode structures. The research progress of 3D printing technology in the field of graphene based three dimensional thick electrode is reviewed. The forming characteristics of the corresponding 3D printing process (ink performance, molding accuracy, application scope) and technological difficulties are analyzed. The development trend of graphene based three-dimensional thick electrode 3D printing is prospected. The whole battery forming process based on gel electrolyte is proposed, which provides a new strategy for the development of a new generation of high performance lithium ion batteries. © 2021 Journal of Mechanical Engineering.