3D-Printed Electrochemical Hardware: Design, Fabrication, Performance, and Emerging Applications

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has emerged as a versatile approach for the development of electrochemical hardware, enabling customized, miniaturized, modular, and integrated platforms for sensing, energy storage, environmental monitoring, biomedical diagnostics, and materials characterization. This review examines recent advances in the design, fabrication, performance, and applications of 3D-printed electrochemical hardware, with an emphasis on device architecture, printable materials, manufacturing strategies, and post-processing methods. Fused deposition modeling and other additive manufacturing techniques have been employed to fabricate electrochemical cells, electrodes, microfluidic systems, integrated platforms, and auxiliary components using conductive and non-conductive polymeric materials. Reported devices demonstrate advantages in low-cost fabrication, rapid prototyping, geometric flexibility, reduced material consumption, and functional integration, while surface activation and architectural optimization can substantially improve electrochemical performance. However, high electrical resistance, limited exposure of conductive sites, interlayer anisotropy, chemical and mechanical degradation, reproducibility, and scalability remain important challenges. Overall, 3D printing provides a flexible and accessible manufacturing route for electrochemical hardware, with significant potential for customized and portable systems. Further advances in materials, surface engineering, standardization, reproducibility, and scalable manufacturing are required to support broader technological and industrial adoption.