A review on additive manufacturing and materials for catalytic applications: Milestones, key concepts, advances and perspectives

Abstract

Catalysis, a driving force of the chemical industry is increasingly being influenced by additive manufacturing. The link between them is based on the need to intensify catalytic processes in order to make them more efficient and sustainable. Additive manufacturing can satisfy such a need, generating devices with an advanced design, easy production, and great adaptation, in addition to their catalytic functionality. The exponential growth of examples reported on the application of 3D-printing in catalysis has led to the need to compile and analyse these cases and thus establish, through this review, the most in-depth analysis done to date. The manuscript includes a brief background of the history of additive manufacturing and the classification of the different printing techniques. Subsequently, it identifies the intensification of processes, among other aspects, as the key for understanding the union of additive manufacturing and catalysis. Then, it explores in detail how such a combination occurs, establishing the most comprehensive classification to date between the two large groups of printable devices with catalytic properties. Finally, a series of perspectives are proposed in which the most probable courses of new advances in this field of research are identified.