Preparation and Characterization of 3D Printed PLA-Based Conductive Composites Using Carbonaceous Fillers by Masterbatch Melting Method

Rui Guo,Min Xu,Liping Cai,Tong Ji,Xin Jia,Zechun Ren,Haiying Yang,Hongjie Bi

doi:10.3390/polym11101589

Abstract

This study was aimed at improving the conductivity of polylactic acid (PLA)-based composites by incorporating carbonaceous fillers. The composites with the addition of graphene nanoplatelets (rGO) or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were fabricated by the masterbatch melting method in order to improve the dispersion of the two kinds of nano-fillers. The results showed that, with the addition of 9 wt % rGO, the volume electrical resistivity of the composite reached the minimum electrical resistance of 103 Ω·m, at which point the conductive network in the composites was completely formed. The interfacial compatibility, apparent viscosity, and the thermal stability of the composite were also good. The rGO functionalized by sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) was an efficient method to further improve the electrical conductivity of the composite, compared with tannic acid and MWCNTs. The resistivity was reduced by an order in magnitude. Patterns printed onto different baseplates by fused deposition modeling illustrated that the functionalized composite had certain flexibility and it is suitable for printing complex shapes.

Highlights

Conductive polymer composites with better performances and multifunction, typically composed of polymer matrix and carbonaceous fillers [1], are promising for applications in many potential fields [2], such as electronics devices, thermal management parts, etc. [3,4]
= 26.46°, which was attributed to the crystalline form of the stacked redox graphene nanoplatelets (rGO). This demonstrated rGO can maintain a good peak crystalline form in the Figure 9 shows the results of the FTIRthat
Taking the good electrical conductivity and thermal stability into consideration, rGO was selected as the conductive filler for the composites, and the addition amount was chosen to be 9 wt %, which was used for subsequent research

Summary

Introduction

Conductive polymer composites with better performances and multifunction, typically composed of polymer matrix and carbonaceous fillers [1], are promising for applications in many potential fields [2], such as electronics devices, thermal management parts, etc. [3,4]. The carbonaceous fillers became an attractive research area in investigating composite applications since their invention [5]. In the past several years, with the growing requirement of conductive polymer composites, the research of carbonaceous fillers was of great importance [3]. Carbonaceous fillers, including graphene [6], carbon nanotubes [7,8], graphite [9], and carbon fiber [10,11], are supposed to be one of the most prospective fillers for incorporation into the polymer matrix because of their intrinsic characteristics of light weight, and high electrical and thermal conductivity [12]. Graphene, which is a two-dimensional atomic layer of sp2 -hybridized carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice [13,14,15,16,17], is drawing more and more attention because of its superb mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties [18].

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Results

Conclusion