Super-strong, super-light, durable-yet-flexible two-dimensional material graphene is often hailed as the wonder material of the future. Able to conduct both heat and electricity with great efficiency, its potential for use in electronics manufacturing is enormous -- OLEDs, batteries, transistors and photovoltaic cells are just a few in a long list of ways in which the material may be used.
As you can probably imagine, combining this with 3D printing is sort of a manufacturing holy grail. Last year, it was achieved for the first time by a team of researchers in Korea, who managed to 3D print graphene nanowires.
Now a team of researchers from the Imperial College London, the University of Warwick, has created a graphene 3D printing material that they have printed into more complex three-dimensional geometric arrangements.
"Our formulations have the flow and physical properties we need for the filament deposition process required in 3D printing: They need to flow through very small nozzles and set immediately after passing through it, retaining the shape and holding the layers on top," lead author Dr Esther García-Tuñon of Imperial College London explained to Nanowerk.
"We use this two-dimensional material as building block to create macroscopic 3D structures and a technique called direct ink writing also known as direct write assembly, or Robocasting."
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