Vidakis Nectarios, Petousis Markos, Velidakis Emmanouil, Tzounis Lazaros, Mountakis Nikolaos, Kechagias John, Grammatikos Sotirios
Mechanical Engineering Department, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Jun 4;14(11):3076. doi: 10.3390/ma14113076.
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 (TiO) 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/TiO can be a novel nanocomposite system in AM applications that the polymer industry can benefit from.
聚丙烯（PP）是一种工程热塑性聚合物，广泛应用于各种领域。这项工作旨在通过引入二氧化钛（TiO）纳米颗粒（NPs）作为纳米填料来增强PP的性能。通过熔融混合挤出工艺，制备了填料浓度分别为0.5、1、2和4 wt.%的新型纳米复合长丝。然后将这些长丝送入商用熔融长丝制造（FFF）3D打印机中制备试样，以便根据国际标准对其机械、粘弹性、物理化学和断口形貌性能进行评估。进行了拉伸、弯曲、冲击和显微硬度测试，以及动态力学分析（DMA）、拉曼光谱、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、熔体流动体积指数（MVR）和原子力显微镜（AFM）测试，以全面表征填料浓度对3D打印纳米复合材料性能的影响。结果表明，随着填料含量的增加，纳米复合材料的性能有所改善，而材料的微观结构效应和加工性能并未受到显著影响，这对于所报道方案的可能工业化具有重要意义。这项工作表明，PP/TiO可以成为增材制造应用中的一种新型纳米复合体系，聚合物行业可以从中受益。
