Processing and characterization of tailorable 3D-printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene composites with hybrid buckypapers

Abstract

In this work, a hybrid additive manufacturing process was used to incorporate hybrid buckypapers into an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene matrix. The buckypapers were made onsite during manufacturing from a suspension containing carbon nanotubes, short carbon fibres, and polymer binders. The 3D-printed composites were post-processed by vacuum bagging. The composites reinforced with hybrid buckypapers showed a higher tensile strength by 18% and a tensile modulus by 20% than neat ABS. Further improvement in tensile properties (up to 39%) was observed after the modification of hybrid buckypapers with epoxy or thermoplastic polyurethane binders. The porosity was reduced from 4.8% to 0.5% after the post-treatment of ABS. The microstructure of the hybrid buckypapers and the resulting mechanical properties of the composites depended on the weight fraction (1, 5, or 10 wt%) of binders. The composites without binders were the most porous and experienced a 64% reduction in interlaminar shear strength. The thermoplastic polyurethane had a negligible impact on interlaminar shear strength, while the epoxy binder fully recovered it. The results showed that the mechanical properties and morphology of composites containing hybrid reinforcement can be tailored by selecting the type and weight fraction of the polymer binder system.