Abstract
Conductive Polymer Composites (CPCs) have recently gained an extensive scientific interest as feedstock materials in Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) Three-dimensional (3D) printing. Polylactic Acid (PLA), widely used in FFF 3D printing, as well as its Carbon Black (CB) nanocomposites at different weight percentage (wt.%) filler loadings (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 wt.%), were prepared via a melt mixing filament extrusion process in this study and utilized to manufacture FFF 3D printed specimens. The nanocomposites were examined for their electrical conductivity. The highest loaded 3D printed CPC (5.0 wt.%) was tested as an electrothermal Joule heating device. Static tensile, flexural, Charpy’s impact and Vickers microhardness mechanical properties were investigated for the neat and PLA/CB 3D printed nanocomposites. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) revealed a stiffening mechanism for the PLA/CB nanocomposites. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) elucidated the samples’ internal and external microstructural characteristics. The PLA/CB 5.0 wt.% nanocomposite demonstrated also antibacterial properties, when examined with a screening process, against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It can be envisaged that the 3D printed PLA/CB CPCs exhibited a multi-functional performance, and could open new avenues towards low-cost personalized biomedical objects with complex geometry, amongst others, i.e., surgery tools, splints, wearables, etc.
Highlights
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is in the forefront of research, receiving a continuous industrial interest for potential applications in the fields of engineered polymer composites [1], printed electronics [2], personalized health and biomedical equipment [3], civil engineering infrastructure i.e., buildings, bridges, etc. [4], amongst others
It is worth mentioning that the Raman spectra of Polylactic Acid (PLA)/Carbon Black (CB) nanocomposites at higher filler loadings were governed by the carbon nanoadditive “characteristic” spectroscopic responses, which are highly resonant to the 532 nm laser excitation source, without any visible peaks arising due to the PLA polymeric matrix
It can be very clearly observed in the CB and in the PLA/CB spectra the characteristic D-band and G-band peaks of CB graphitic carbon allotrope materials, centered at ca. 1345 cm−1 and 1565 cm−1, respectively [50]
Summary
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is in the forefront of research, receiving a continuous industrial interest for potential applications in the fields of engineered polymer composites [1], printed electronics [2], personalized health and biomedical equipment [3], civil engineering infrastructure i.e., buildings, bridges, etc. [4], amongst others. AM enables the manufacturing of components and end-use products with customizable geometries. It is an efficient technology, especially when small batches are required, which are implausible for conventional manufacturing processes that present several limitations and freedom to fabricate parts with complex shapes [5]. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, which is one of the most famous AM technologies, has recently attracted interest on both academia, as well as various industrial sectors for objects’ manufacturing and/or prototyping purposes [6]. It is worth mentioning that 3D printing is a cutting-edge technology allowing the production of 3D objects with more complex geometry compared to conventionally. Among the increasing number of 3D printing processes, the most wellknown ones are: (i) Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), (ii) Stereo-lithography, (iii) Selective
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