Printing Beyond Fabrication: A Physicochemical Vision for Emerging Device Technologies

The future of printing cannot be understood as the evolution of another manufacturing tool. Rather, it points to a science-driven paradigm in which functional matter is designed, formed, and integrated through controlled physicochemical events. In this visionary article, we look back to show how advances in nonlinear photochemistry, nanoscale heat transport, capillary flow, electrohydrodynamics, and liquid metal interfacial science have matured into powerful printing platforms, exampling two-photon polymerization, meniscus-guided printing, and liquid metal electronics. These histories reveal that transformative printing emerges when physical chemistry turns instability, confinement, reaction thresholds, surface forces, and energy gradients into manufacturing principles. Looking forward, printing may democratize smart systems by enabling localized, digital, adaptive, and on-demand fabrication of electronics, sensors, energy devices, and wearable technologies, while also supporting more resilient supply chains by reducing dependence on centralized manufacturing and expanding access to functional technologies closer to the point of need. Yet this future requires solving challenges in predictive ink design, solution-free material formation, durability, integration, circularity, standardization, and AI-guided control. Physical chemistry will be central to making printing reliable, sustainable, and widely accessible.