A Review of Conductive Carbon Materials for 3D Printing: Materials, Technologies, Properties, and Applications

Abstract

Carbon material is widely used and has good electrical and thermal conductivity. It is often used as a filler to endow insulating polymer with electrical and thermal conductivity. Three-dimensional printing technology is an advance in modeling and manufacturing technology. From the forming principle, it offers a new production principle of layered manufacturing and layer by layer stacking formation, which fundamentally simplifies the production process and makes large-scale personalized production possible. Conductive carbon materials combined with 3D printing technology have a variety of potential applications, such as multi-shape sensors, wearable devices, supercapacitors, and so on. In this review, carbon black, carbon nanotubes, carbon fiber, graphene, and other common conductive carbon materials are briefly introduced. The working principle, advantages and disadvantages of common 3D printing technology are reviewed. The research situation of 3D printable conductive carbon materials in recent years is further summarized, and the performance characteristics and application prospects of these conductive carbon materials are also discussed. Finally, the potential applications of 3D printable conductive carbon materials are concluded, and the future development direction of 3D printable conductive carbon materials has also been prospected.

The Influence of the Printing Temperature and the Filament Color on the Dimensional Accuracy, Tensile Strength, and Friction Performance of FFF-Printed PLA Specimens

“…This was not the case upon a further increase in the printing temperature, as the UTS of the black-colored specimens continued to decrease, while that of the natural PLA samples increased. Low values of the UTS of black PLA were also reported by other researchers [ 17 , 18 , 29 ] for temperatures situated in the same range. Considering the fact that coloring agents added to natural PLA may act as nucleating agents for the crystalline regions of the semi-crystalline polymers, as previously demonstrated by other authors [ 19 , 27 ], one might assume that the printed black PLA has higher crystallinity than that of the printed natural PLA.…”

“…The higher degree of crystallinity led not only to higher UTS values for the initial printing temperatures (200 °C to 210 °C), but also assured a higher melting point of the black filament, in accordance with [ 19 , 33 ]. The higher values of the melting temperature, as well as of the higher thermal conductivity of the black filler, pointed out by [ 17 , 18 ], caused a completely different thermal behavior of the black filament in comparison to the natural one for the printing temperatures situated between 200 °C and 240 °C. The influence of the coloring additives on the thermal behavior during the printing of PLA was also reported in [ 34 ].…”

“…The variable parameters were the printing temperature (ranging from 200 °C to 240 °C) and the filament color (natural PLA and black PLA). The natural PLA filament was selected as the reference material, whereas the black-colored PLA was chosen considering the fact that black dyes enhance the thermal conductivity of the PLA and modify its friction behavior, as shown by previous research [ 3 , 17 , 18 , 28 , 29 , 34 , 35 ].…”

“…Sometimes, the intrinsic properties of pure PLA cannot ensure certain properties needed for specific products, such as, for example, products with high electrical and thermal conductivity. For the improvement of such properties, additives are mixed with PLA, leading to PLA-based composites [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

“…Regarding the color of the PLA filament, previous research showed that its influence on the dimensional accuracy [ 1 , 34 ] and the tensile strength [ 17 , 18 , 27 , 29 ] of FDM-printed samples cannot be neglected, and that also the same color PLA filaments manufactured by different producers, may not have the same printing properties [ 24 ]. The reasons behind this are considered to be the color-dependent in-process crystallinity and/or the different thermal behavior [ 17 , 34 ] in the case of PLA filaments containing coloring additives.…”