The chemical, mechanical, and physical properties of 3D printed materials composed of TiO ₂ -ABS nanocomposites

Abstract

To expand the chemical capabilities of 3D printed structures generated from commercial thermoplastic printers, we have produced and printed polymer filaments that contain inorganic nanoparticles. TiO2 was dispersed into acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and extruded into filaments with 1.75 mm diameters. We produced filaments with TiO2 compositions of 1, 5, and 10% (kg/kg) and printed structures using a commercial 3D printer. Our experiments suggest that ABS undergoes minor degradation in the presence of TiO2 during the different processing steps. The measured mechanical properties (strain and Young’s modulus) for all of the composites are similar to those of structures printed from the pure polymer. TiO2 incorporation at 1% negatively affects the stress at breaking point and the flexural stress. Structures produced from the 5 and 10% nanocomposites display a higher breaking point stress than those printed from the pure polymer. TiO2 within the printed matrix was able to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of the polymer. TiO2 was also able to photocatalyze the degradation of a rhodamine 6G in solution. These experiments display chemical reactivity in nanocomposites that are printed using commercial 3D printers, and we expect that our methodology will help to inform others who seek to incorporate catalytic nanoparticles in 3D printed structures.

3D‐Structured Monoliths of Nanoporous Polymers by Additive Manufacturing

“…Based on FDM especially the processing of composite filaments poses a great challenge as they consist of the thermoplastic polymer as printable binder matrix and typically inorganic or hybrid solid particles as filler material. For example, Sorkski et al used FDM to print an active catalyst for the photo degradation of Rhodamine 6G by incorporating TiO 2 nanoparticles into ABS filament . Another recent example by Sun et al is the catalysis of the Fenton oxidation of aromatic molecules by a catalytic monolith made from a PLA filament containing an iron catalyst .…”

Toward 3D printed hydrogen storage materials made with ABS‐MOF composites

“…This observation is in contrast with our observations for TiO 2 composites in which we found that the TiO 2 , and not the thermal processing, affected the glass transition temperature of the composite. 27 The result indicates that any interaction between the polymer and the MOF does not significantly affect the polymer-polymer interaction.…”

“…This conclusion is corroborated by our previous study with printed ABS-TiO 2 composites where molecules in aqueous solution could access nanoparticles within a printed structure. 27 For applications that involve chemical storage, this property is crucial because it shows that storage can be optimized by increasing the content of MOF content of the composite.…”

“…ABS and MOF-5 were suspended and solvent cast using a previously described protocol. 27 Briefly, a total of 50 g of solid material were placed in a flask with 500 mL of acetone. The total amount of MOF-5 and ABS were altered to achieve different MOF-5 content.…”

Gas uptake of 3D printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene using a vacuum apparatus designed for absorption and desorption studies

“…For example, researchers are presently experimenting with 3-D printed ABS containing inorganic TiO 2 nanoparticles to enhance various mechanical and chemical properties. 3 …”