Abstract
Polypropylene (PP) is an engineered thermoplastic polymer widely used in various applications. This work aims to enhance the properties of PP with the introduction of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) as nanofillers. Novel nanocomposite filaments were produced at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 wt.% filler concentrations, following a melt mixing extrusion process. These filaments were then fed to a commercially available fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer for the preparation of specimens, to be assessed for their mechanical, viscoelastic, physicochemical, and fractographic properties, according to international standards. Tensile, flexural, impact, and microhardness tests, as well as dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), Raman, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), melt flow volume index (MVR), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), were conducted, to fully characterize the filler concentration effect on the 3D printed nanocomposite material properties. The results revealed an improvement in the nanocomposites properties, with the increase of the filler amount, while the microstructural effect and processability of the material was not significantly affected, which is important for the possible industrialization of the reported protocol. This work showed that PP/TiO2 can be a novel nanocomposite system in AM applications that the polymer industry can benefit from.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) currently has a major role in developing a sustainable economy, with several research projects focusing on sustainability being either AM-based or AM related [1]
The results revealed an improvement in the nanocomposites properties, with the increase of the filler amount, while the microstructural effect and processability of the material was not significantly affected, which is important for the possible industrialization of the reported protocol
PP is characterized as a high-grade engineering material for AM, but it is only recommended for advanced AM users [21] because it warps during the fused filament fabrication (FFF) process, and the developed thermal stresses attributed to (i) the 3D printing extruder shear induced crystallization, and (ii) the PP macromolecular chains’ inherent tendency to form crystals on the material coming from the melt to the solid state, resulting in a semi-crystalline polymer [22]
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) currently has a major role in developing a sustainable economy, with several research projects focusing on sustainability being either AM-based or AM related [1]. Research in AM has been conducted on recycling processes of polymers [8,9,10,11] and on mechanical, thermal, electrical and/or other property enhancements, using a wide variety of fillers and nanofillers dispersed in the polymer matrix [12,13,14,15,16,17]. Among the wide variety of polymers utilized in AM, polypropylene (PP) is of great interest for its high mechanical and thermal stability, making it a proper material for engineering applications, as well as a thermoplastic material that exhibits a great processability via melt-mixing and related compounding processes [18]. It could be realized that polypropylene has a high potential in FFF AM applications; it was chosen as the polymer matrix material for the development of nanocomposites with enhanced 3D printed specimens’ properties
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