---
title: "UCLA develops zinc-ion hybrid battery storing seven times more energy"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/ucla-develops-zinc-ion-hybrid-battery-storing-seven-times-more-energy/
date: 2026-06-30
modified: 2026-06-30
lang: en
author: "Joseph Caron-Dawe"
description: "A research team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has used additive manufacturing to produce a 3D printed carbon electrode that increases the charge capacity of a zinc-ion..."
categories:
  - "3D Printing Processes"
  - "AM for Energy"
  - "AM Research"
  - "Research & Education"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/UCLA-Zinc-ion-hybrid-battery-01-640x427.jpg
word_count: 615
---

# UCLA develops zinc-ion hybrid battery storing seven times more energy

[A research team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/ucla-materials-scientists-receive-900000-to-3d-print-lithium-ion-batteries/) has used additive manufacturing to produce a 3D printed carbon electrode that increases the charge capacity of a zinc-ion hybrid battery by more than seven times, compared with existing devices of the same type.

The work, [published in the journal *Small*](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smll.202514911), also introduced a 3D printed test cell designed to improve the consistency of performance measurements in energy storage research.

The battery developed by the team is a hybrid device: one terminal functions like the charge-storing component of a conventional lithium-ion battery, while the other uses a carbon electrode [similar to those found in supercapacitors](https://www.voxelmatters.com/3d-printed-supercapacitor-plane-flies-for-45-seconds-off-a-four-second-long-charge/) — storage devices that discharge and recharge rapidly and are expected to operate for decades. 

The principal limitation of supercapacitors is that energy can only be held on the surface of their electrodes, constraining overall capacity.

## A printed electrode built for surface area

To try and overcome that constraint, the UCLA team used a UV-laser resin printing process to build a carbon electrode with a honeycomb or sponge-like internal structure, perforated with billions of microscopic cavities.

![UCLA develops zinc-ion hybrid battery storing seven times more energy](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/UCLA-Zinc-ion-hybrid-battery-02-340x227.jpg)

After printing, the electrode was subjected to heating and gassing to leave behind only conductive carbon with open pores, then loaded with vanadium oxide through a chemical process. The resulting surface area was so extensive that a single gram, if flattened, would cover approximately 10 tennis courts.

“The method we used lets us build any 3D scaffold, layer by layer, and control its microstructure,” said co-corresponding author Ric Kaner, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering at UCLA. “We can actually have billions and billions of these tiny holes, producing an enormous internal surface area. That means we can store a lot of charge.”

Beyond the energy density improvement, the device retained 82% of its capacity after 1,500 charge-discharge cycles. The team also made the case for zinc as a more sustainable battery chemistry than lithium, noting that zinc is approximately 100 times more abundant and comparatively easier to mine and recycle.

“The future of energy storage won't be defined by a single technology,” said co-corresponding author Maher El-Kady, Assistant Researcher in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA College. “At some point, we will need to look for something to complement the current options for grid-scale energy storage. What we've done in this study essentially gives us zinc-ion hybrid devices that can store nearly one order of magnitude higher capacity.”

## An open-source test cell for the research community

The study also introduced a 3D printed test cell intended as an improvement on the open-beaker setup commonly used in energy storage labs. Standard commercial glass test cells cost $1,000 or more, leading most research teams to rely on beakers — a setup that allows electrolyte evaporation and introduces variability in electrode positioning, both of which affect measurement accuracy. The UCLA team's printed cell features a sealed top and fixed electrode slots. 

In testing, standardized carbon electrodes retained 98% of their charge after 1,500 cycles in the printed cell, compared with failure in fewer than 100 cycles in conventional open-cell setups.

“It's a concept that we hope can be useful to other researchers in the field by helping them obtain more consistent measurements and reliable data for their devices,” said first author Dr. Sophia Uemura, who recently completed her Ph.D. at UCLA. “One of the exciting things about 3D printing is how accessible it has become. In this case, anyone with access to a 3D printer will be able to make a test cell like ours and adapt it for their own work.”

The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists at [National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan](https://www.voxelmatters.com/tsinghua-scientists-3d-print-multifunctional-magnetic-soft-robots/).