Make Your Own Batteries And Circuits From A Hacked Desktop Printer

Hacking a Desktop Printer to Make Batteries and Circuits

Want to make a smart coffee mug that signals “hot”? A customized printer can make the flexible circuits and supercapacitors you’ll need.

Katherine Bourzac | July 5, 2016

Under a bench at Sang-Young Lee’s lab is an ordinary, somewhat beat-up ink-jet printer he has modified so that it spits out electronic circuits and a type of energy storage device called a supercapacitor. To make it work, Lee empties the ink cartridges and refills them with specially formulated battery materials and conductive inks. When loaded with treated paper, his hacked printers make flexible, durable supercapacitors and simple circuit components in the form of a high-resolution map of the Republic of Korea, a flower, a logo, or any other desired design.

"“The goal for the Internet of things and ubiquitous computing is to have technology go into the background so we can interact with the world in ways that feel natural,” says Inna Lobel, a mechanical engineer and industrial designer at the design firm Frog in New York City. These printed supercapacitors suggest what such technologies and materials might look like, she says." Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601800/hacking-a-desktop-printer-to-make-batteries-and-circuits/

<more at https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601800/hacking-a-desktop-printer-to-make-batteries-and-circuits/; related articles and links: http://www.therecycler.com/posts/desktop-printers-used-to-make-batteries/ (Desktop printers used to make batteries. July 5, 2016) and http://syleek.unist.ac.kr/professor/ (Prof. Sang-Young Lee. UNIST | Energy Soft Materials Lab)>