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Liquid metal binder jetting concept illustrating a two-layer print sequence and the associated processing step

This invention, hereby called liquid metal binder jetting (LMBJ), uses a molten metal as the “binder” that is deposited on ceramic powder, resulting in a multi-material fabrication process that includes both the ceramic and metallic phase in the same process.  The simple process involves four steps:

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Electrodeposition of Zn onto 3D printed copper nanowire (CuNW)

Improving the active material of the Zn anode is critical to improving the practicality of Zn-MnO2 battery technology. LLNL researchers have developed a new category of 3D structured Zn anode using a direct-ink writing (DIW) printing process to create innovative hierarchical architectures.  The DIW ink, which is a gel-based mixture composed of zinc metal powder and organic binders, is…

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Nanoporus gold

By combining 3D printing and dealloying., researchers at LLNL have developed a method for fabricating metal foams with engineered hierarchical architectures consisting of pores at least 3 distinct length scales. LLNL’s method uses direct ink writing (DIW), a 3D printing technique for additive manufacturing to fabricate hierarchical nanoporous metal foams with deterministically controlled 3D…