Abstract
Polymer Laser Sintering (LS) is a well-known Additive Manufacturing process, capable of producing highly complex geometries with little or no cost penalty. However, the restricted range of materials currently available for this process has limited its applications. Whilst it is common to modify the properties of standard LS polymers with the inclusion of fillers e.g. nanoclays, achieving effective dispersions can be difficult. The work presented here investigates the use of plasma treatment as a method of enhancing dispersion with an expectation of improving consistency and surface quality of laser sintered nanocomposite parts. To enable the preparation of polyamide 12 nanocomposite powder for applications in LS, plasma surface modification using Low Pressure Air Plasma Treatment was carried out on two nanoclays: Cloisite 30B (C30B) and Nanomer I.34TCN (I.34TCN). Plasma treatment strongly reduced the aggregation of the nanoclay (C30B and I.34TCN) particles, and powders displayed higher decomposition temperatures than those without plasma treatment. LS parts from neat polyamide 12, untreated I.34TCN and plasma treated I.34TCN composites were successfully produced with different complex shapes. The presence of well dispersed plasma treated nanoclays was observed and found to be essential for an improved surface quality of LS fabricated which was achieved only for plasma treated I.34TCN. Likewise, some mechanical properties could be improved above that of PA12 by incorporation of treated I.34TCN. For example, the elastic modulus of plasma treated composites was higher than that of polyamide 12 and the untreated composite. In the case of the ultimate strain, the plasma treated composite performed better than untreated and results had a reduced variation between samples. This illustrates the feasibility of the use of plasma treatments on nanoclays to improve the properties of LS parts, even though further studies will be required to exploit the full potential.
Highlights
This study explores the effect of the plasma treatment process on the physico-chemical properties of two organo-modified nanoclay surfaces (Cloisite 30B (C30) and Nanomer I.34
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images The SEM micrographs of the nanoclays Cloisite 30B (C30B) and I.34TCN before and after plasma treatment are shown in Fig. 1(a&b) and(c&d) respectively
We suggest that the above Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results coupled with the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis shows that the plasma results in two actions i) the improvement of the thermal stability of the organoclays C30B and I.34TCN and ii) the formation of a new hydroxyl at the surface of the MMT converting carbons from the alkylic tail to carboxyl [42]
Summary
This study explores the effect of the plasma treatment process on the physico-chemical properties of two organo-modified nanoclay surfaces (Cloisite 30B (C30) and Nanomer I.34 TCN (I.34TCN) and the consequences for their applications in laser sintering (LS) polymer nanocomposites. This study explores the effect of the plasma treatment process on the physico-chemical properties of two organo-modified nanoclay surfaces (Cloisite 30B (C30) and Nanomer I.34. A CO2-laser selectively fuses the heated powder to produce products layer by layer. LS parameters such as laser power, scan speed, scan spacing and layer thickness can be varied for optimised properties [4]. A limited selection of materials and inconsistent mechanical properties are still challenges, restricting the overall potential of LS [5,6,7,8]. Pore formation is highly affected by the melt flow and thermal stability and is influenced by the powder particle shape, distribution and processing parameters (laser power and scan speed) [7,11,12]
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