Study of Filament’s Polymer Composites

Ng, Soon An (2019) Study of Filament’s Polymer Composites. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The title of this final year project is to fabricate a new filament polymer composite and study their mechanical properties. In this modern technology world, there are a lot of materials which are used as 3D printing filaments such as Acrylonitrile Butane Styrene (ABS), Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and so on. However, there are some weaknesses on these materials due to the poor mechanical properties and functionalities. Therefore, this study is carried out to develop better performance polymer composites. Since ABS can produce a high strength products compared to others type of materials, it may use as the pure polymer of the research. Different weight percent (wt%) of Cellulose Nanocrystal (CNC) will be prepared with ABS to produce become nanocomposite. The mechanical properties of the polymer composite will be studied by the tensile test and izod impact test. It is shown that CNC reinforced ABS nanocomposite able to enhance the mechanical properties of the filament. The polymer nanocomposites which made up of ABS as base film and 3 wt% CNC is obtained the best result in mechanical properties including the ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus and energy absorption when compare to others CNC content. The ultimate tensile strength for ABS with 3 wt% CNC can achieved 34.62 MPa. Besides, the elastic modulus can achieved 397.17 MPa while the energy absorption achieved 0.2895 J when compare to others weight percent of CNC. This is because of the presence of CNC with this content have a good interfacial adhesion between ABS and itself. The more content added on will caused the space for molecular mobility decreased and may affect the mechanical properties also. Hence, it is said that the weight percentage of CNC with 3% should be added on to become polymer composites with ABS in the future research because it achieved the best result compare to others.