Digital design and additive manufacturing of structural materials in electrochemical and thermal energy storage systems: a review

Additive manufacturing is increasingly utilised in the energy conversion and storage field. It offers great flexibility to fabricate structural materials with improved physical properties, and other advantages such as material waste reduction, fabrication time minimisation, and cost-effectiveness. In this review, current developments in additive manufacturing of energy storage devices are discussed. The digital design approaches of structural materials and mainstream additive manufacturing techniques, including vat photopolymerization, powder bed fusion, material jetting, binder jetting, material extrusion, and directed energy deposition, are summarised. Then, a comprehensive review of recent advances in the electrochemical and thermal energy storage field is provided. In the end, an integrated framework considering digital design and additive manufacturing is proposed for a wide range of energy applications.