3D-printed electrolytes keep zinc batteries stable for 8000 cycles

In the global race to build safer and more sustainable batteries, zinc-based batteries have long been viewed as a promising alternative to lithium-ion technology due to their lower cost, greater safety, and environmental advantages. Yet, their commercial potential has been held back by a familiar foe: unstable anode: electrolyte interfaces (AEIs) that degrade under stress, leading to dendrite growth, short circuits, and capacity loss.

Now, researchers at the South China University of Technology (SCUT) have found a way to solve this problem using digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing, a high-precision additive manufacturing method that uses light to cure polymers layer by layer.

Their approach, reported in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, allows programmatic control of gel-polymer electrolyte (GPE) structures, enabling engineers to fine-tune interfacial stresses with micron-level accuracy.

The results are striking. Batteries built with the DLP-manufactured electrolytes achieved over 2,000 hours of stable cycling in symmetrical cells and retained more than 91% of capacity after 8,000 cycles in full-cell tests—even under extreme temperature conditions ranging from −10 °C to 60 °C.

"Controllable stress inside batteries has always been a challenge," said Prof. Wei Yuan, corresponding author of the study. "Traditional gel electrolytes often have irregular pore structures, which makes it impossible to predict how stress will evolve. By using DLP printing, we can now design stress itself as a controllable material parameter."

In most batteries, mechanical stress is an unwanted byproduct of electrochemical reactions that engineers try to minimize or ignore. The SCUT team turned that assumption on its head.

Through DLP 3D printing, the researchers could fabricate GPEs with cross-scale architectures—micron-scale porous networks integrated with smooth outer surfaces. This combination improves ion transport while maintaining intimate contact with the zinc anode. Using multiphase-field simulations alongside in-situ and ex-situ characterizations, they uncovered how stress-enhanced zinc deposition occurs: when interface stress is carefully tuned, zinc ions deposit uniformly, and the interface remains stable rather than deforming.

"Even slight variations in the electrolyte's thickness can trigger stress imbalances and uneven zinc growth," explained Dr. Xuyang Wu, co-author and an assistant researcher at SCUT. "The precision of DLP printing lets us control that thickness and porosity at the micron level, which directly determines how the battery behaves."

Beyond zinc-ion batteries, the ability to digitally manufacture and control stress fields within electrochemical systems opens new frontiers for next-generation batteries, fuel cells, and flexible energy devices.

The SCUT team is now expanding the work to create even more complex 3D architectures and to explore how advanced design algorithms and adaptive photopolymerization can further enhance mechanical performance at critical interfaces. "We're moving toward a future where mechanical stress becomes a designable feature rather than an unpredictable failure mode," Prof. Yuan said. "That shift could make much safer, longer-lasting, and more predictable batteries in the future."
 

International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing (IJEM, IF: 21.3) is dedicated to publishing the best advanced manufacturing research with extreme dimensions to address both the fundamental scientific challenges and significant engineering needs.

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