Sustainable wet-chemical sintering of metal-based 3D-printed electrodes enables high-performance electrochemical transducers
Li, Tong (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)
Sala, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)
Muñoz, Jose (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)

Data:	2026
Resum:	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.
Ajuts:	Ministerio de Ciencia y Educación RYC2021–033820-I Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2023–146787OB-I00 Generalitat de Catalunya 2024/PROD-00046 Generalitat de Catalunya 2025/INNOV-00044
Nota:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Chemical sintering ; Additive manufacturing ; Nitrate-to-ammonia ; Metal 3D printing ; Nanocomposites
Publicat a:	Materials Today Communications, Vol. 53 (April 2026) , art. 115338, ISSN 2352-4928

DOI: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2026.115338

7 p, 4.9 MB

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