Emily Patterson

We've got plenty of different filament options available to us as we design additive manufactured electronics. But composite filaments provide some of the most exciting opportunities for innovation.

By altering the makeup of these composite materials, we can achieve different outcomes. For example, recent research published in December 2024 found that crafting filaments with carbon black nanoparticles and polylactic acid (CB-PLA) can provide the high performance necessary to produce electrochemical sensors. At the same time, the process becomes more cost-efficient and ecologically sustainable.

The researchers went further, positing that the addition of soybean oil as a plasticiser agent made it much easier to produce effective filaments. The researchers believe that this opens the door for low-infrastructure laboratories to develop their own filaments—something that could revolutionise the ways in which AME is deployed in the coming years.