Mechanical Performance of Polymer Composites Filament for 3D Printing

Ng, Bin Er (2022) Mechanical Performance of Polymer Composites Filament for 3D Printing. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Among the different 3D printing technologies, fused deposition modelling (FDM) is the most popular 3D printing technology with its simplicity, low cost and material wastage. FDM shows high potential of its applicability in industrial and the ability to compete with other processing techniques. However, due to the poor mechanical and geometrical properties of pure polymers printed parts, they are lacked of sufficient strength for use as functional parts, the FDM technique has generally been limited to rapid prototyping applications. Thus, introduction of nanofiller reinforced polymers could have potential to improve the mechanical properties and thermal properties of pure polymer. In this project, 1, 2, and 3 wt.% of nanocellulose (NCC) reinforced polypropylene (PP) nanocomposite filaments were prepared by single screw extruder. The melt flow index (MFI) result showed that the increment of filler loading would lead to decrement of MFI of the test specimens. Next, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) result showed 1NCCPP decreased slightly the thermal stability due to the sulphate acid hydrolysis of sulphate groups on the surface of NCC that accelerated the degradation. However, the thermal stability of pure PP was slightly increase by the further addition of 2 and 3 wt.%. NCC. This could be because the PP-NCC nanocomposites have a larger ratio of crystalline to amorphous regions than pure PP. Besides, tensile test result showed that 1NCCPP able to improve tensile strength by 1.67% due to improved interaction allows for a better transfer of the applied longitudinal stress between NCC filler and PP matrix. The maximum elongation at break was found in 1NCCPP samples. Furthermore, Izod impact test result showed that 1NCCPP able to improve the impact strength by 20.06% attributed to the better interfacial interaction and bonding of the NCC nanoparticles with the PP matrix and improved the crystallinity to resist the high impact load. In short, PP-NCC nanocomposite filaments are possible to be used in FDM as it shows potential performance improvement in tensile strength and impact strength with an optimum loading of 1 wt.% NCC.