Additive Manufacturing Techniques for Electrochemical Sensing

Additive manufacturing has transformed the fabrication of electrochemical sensors by enabling the rapid, cost-effective production of bespoke sensing platforms. Techniques such as fused filament fabrication (FFF), stereolithography and inkjet deposition allow precise control over electrode geometry, layer thickness and material composition. Conductive filaments are commonly prepared by blending thermoplastics with carbonaceous or metallic fillers, yielding electrodes that combine mechanical stability with electrical conductivity. Customised designs can integrate working, reference and counter electrodes into monolithic cells, reducing assembly complexity and enhancing reproducibility. Post-print treatments—including chemical activation or electrochemical polishing—further refine surface properties to improve electron transfer and sensitivity. This flexibility has spurred advances in point-of-care diagnostics, environmental monitoring and agri-food analysis, as users can tailor sensor architectures to target analytes ranging from heavy metals to biomolecules. Sustainability considerations are also gaining traction, with recycled polymers and circular‐economy feedstocks providing greener routes to sensor manufacture. Challenges remain in optimising filler distribution, minimising interfacial resistance and ensuring batch-to-batch consistency, but ongoing innovations promise to broaden the applicability of additive manufacturing in electrochemical sensing across research and industry.

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Additive Manufacturing Techniques for Electrochemical Sensing publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in additive manufacturing techniques for electrochemical sensing across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF): An additive manufacturing process that extrudes thermoplastic filament layer by layer to build three-dimensional objects.

Bespoke filament: A customised printing material formulated by combining a polymer matrix with conductive or catalytic additives tailored for specific electrochemical functions.

Electrochemical sensor: A device that converts a chemical or biochemical interaction at an electrode surface into a measurable electrical signal.

Limit of detection (LOD): The lowest concentration of an analyte that can be distinguished reliably from background noise under defined measurement conditions.

References

1. Additive manufacturing electrochemistry: An overview of producing bespoke conductive additive manufacturing filaments. Materials Today (2023).
2. Recycled additive manufacturing feedstocks with carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes toward the detection of yellow fever virus cDNA. Chemical Engineering Journal (2023).
3. Creative design in fused filament fabrication 3D-Printed electrochemical sensors for detection of biomolecules. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry (2024).
4. Posttreatment of 3D‐printed surfaces for electrochemical applications: A critical review on proposed protocols. Electrochemical Science Advances (2021).