EL PASO, Texas (June 30, 2026) – A team of researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso has developed a way to 3D-print an essential battery component in nearly any shape. Their innovation could free engineers from the constraints of standard rechargeable battery sizes and allow energy storage to be built directly into the devices the batteries power.
The work, detailed in a study published in Communications Engineering, part of the Nature family of journals, centers on gel polymer electrolytes, the material inside a battery that carries the ions (the particles which carry the electrical charge) between the electrodes – the two terminals where chemical reactions occur and electricity enters or leaves the battery. Conventional electrolytes are liquids that must be sealed inside rigid casings, a design that limits battery shapes and raises safety concerns about leaks. The UTEP team instead created a printable gel by combining a light-curable resin with a lithium-based liquid electrolyte, then hardened it layer by layer using a technique called vat photopolymerization.
The printed material performed on par with electrolytes made by conventional methods, reaching ionic conductivities of up to 3.4 × 10⁻³ siemens per centimeter, close to the performance of the liquid electrolytes it could replace. The researchers also pinpointed an optimal recipe, a one-to-four ratio of resin to electrolyte, that balanced strong electrochemical performance with clean, reliable printing.
Just as important for real-world use, the team printed the electrolytes in ordinary laboratory air rather than inside a sealed, oxygen-free chamber, and the material kept its performance. To showcase the design freedom the method offers, the researchers printed simple discs, an open honeycomb lattice and a solid one-centimeter cube, illustrating how future batteries could be shaped to fit a wearable, a medical device or an aerospace part rather than forcing the device to accommodate the battery.
"For years, the shape of a battery has dictated the shape of the device it powers," said Alexis Maurel, Ph.D., the study's lead researcher and a faculty member in UTEP's Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering. "We are showing that you can print a high-performing electrolyte battery component with any shape and place it almost anywhere you want. That changes what designers are able to imagine."
The work also clarified how the choice of solvent shapes both printability and battery behavior, a question the authors note had gone largely unexamined in earlier research on printable electrolytes. One formulation proved especially stable during repeated testing, helping the team identify the most promising path forward.
"This research demonstrates how advanced manufacturing and energy technologies are merging to create entirely new possibilities for battery design," said Kenith Meissner, Ph.D., dean of the Miguel A. Loya College of Engineering. "By developing a scalable method to 3D-print battery electrolytes in virtually any shape, Dr. Maurel and his collaborators are helping position UTEP at the forefront of next-generation energy storage research while providing our students with hands-on experience in technologies that are critical to the future of aerospace, transportation, and advanced manufacturing."
The research was led by UTEP scientists in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories. The team plans to refine its formulations and work toward incorporating these printed electrolytes into complete battery cells.
The study is part of Maurel's portfolio of projects focused on 3D printing of batteries, which includes a workforce development grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. The funding established a partnership between UTEP and Texas A&M University that offers paid, research-intensive summer internships for students from both institutions.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America's leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 26,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. With respect to research, UTEP is in the top 5% of universities in America and offers 169 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
