Investigation of copper reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Nylon 6 based thermoplastic polymer nanocomposite filaments for 3D printing of electronic components

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the most efficient and frequently used methods for the development of biomedical implants, bio-sensors, and customized products. In the FDM process, the filament made of polymers or composites is passed through a nozzle in which heaters are provided to melt the feedstock filament. The addition of copper particles to the polymer filament would enhance its thermal and electrical conductivity which finds vast applications in the development of sensors and other electronic components. Thus, it is obligatory to maintain the melt flow index of the filament following the size of the nozzle and the speed of the filament through the nozzle. The virgin polymer materials used as feedstock filament have an appropriate melt flow index (MFI), but the rheological properties of the polymer composites are not defined. This study focuses on the calculation and measurement of the melt flow rate of copper reinforced with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and nylon 6 thermoplastic matrices using fused deposition modeling. The copper particles of different sizes (149 μm, 74 μm, and 37 μm) were added in ABS and nylon 6 thermoplastic matrices to study the mechanical properties. The melt flow rate has been checked for different concentration ratios varying from 1% to 10% of copper reinforcements. The impact of single, double, and triple-sized copper particles on MFI has been investigated. It has been found that with an increase in copper powder concentration in nylon 6, the melt flow index decreases. On the other hand, the MFI initially increases up to 6% and further decreases by adding more particulates of copper powder in ABS. The surface topography of copper reinforced with different percent-compositions of ABS and nylon 6 based polymer composites have been carried out by using scanning electron microscopy.