Sustainable wet-chemical sintering of metal-based 3D-printed electrodes enables high-performance electrochemical transducers
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) enables rapid and low-cost manufacturing of metal-based 3D-printed components with customizable geometries. However, as-printed metallic systems typically suffer from poor electrical conductivity, necessitating tedious activation post-treatments, such as high-tempera...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:uabarcelona_::b8fc8ed08c8703b1afce663adb8daf62 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/328995 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.mtcomm.2026.115338 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Chemical sintering Additive manufacturing Nitrate-to-ammonia Metal 3D printing Nanocomposites |
| Sumario: | Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) enables rapid and low-cost manufacturing of metal-based 3D-printed components with customizable geometries. However, as-printed metallic systems typically suffer from poor electrical conductivity, necessitating tedious activation post-treatments, such as high-temperature annealing or electroplating technologies, to make them suitable for electrochemical applications. While effective, these methods are costly, time-consuming, and environmentally unfriendly, also requiring specialized equipment. Herein, we report a green wet-chemical activation strategy based on sodium borohydride (NaBH), as a mild reducing agent, which induces room-temperature chemical sintering in 3D-printed copper electrodes (3D-CuEs). As a proof-of-concept, the NaBH-activated 3D-CuEs have been successfully applied to the voltammetric determination of nitrate (NO ) in water via nitrate reduction reaction (NRR), exhibiting a wide linear range (1.5-2553 ppm), a low detection limit of 1.5 ppm, and excellent recoveries in real water samples. Overall, this sustainable and scalable activation method provides a versatile route toward the large-scale fabrication of high-performance metal-based 3D-printed electrodes, opening new opportunities for advanced electrochemical applications. |
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