Mechanical and thermal properties of ABS/montmorillonite nanocomposites for fused deposition modeling 3D printing

• ABS filaments were reinforced by Organo-Montmorillonite(OMMT) nano plates, forming 3D printed nanocomposites
• The mechanical properties of the 3D printed samples increased with the increase of the OMMT loading in ABS matrix.
• The thermal and dimension stability of the 3D printed samples increased with the increase of the OMMT loading.
• Addition of OMMT increased the mechanical properties of FDM 3D printed samples more than those of injection moulding samples.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) nanocomposites with organic modified montmorillonite (OMMT) were prepared by melt intercalation. ABS nanocomposite filaments for fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing were produced by a single screw extruder and printed by a commercial FDM 3D printer. The 3D printed samples were evaluated by tensile, flexural, thermal expansion and dynamic mechanical tests. The structure of nanocomposites were analyzed by TEM and low angle XRD. Results showed that the addition of 5 wt% OMMT improved the tensile strength of 3D printed ABS samples by 43% while the tensile strength of injection moulding ABS samples were improved by 28.9%. It was found that the addition of OMMT significantly increased the tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus and dynamic mechanical storage modulus, and decreased the linear thermal expansion ratio and the weight loss of TGA. These novel ABS nanocomposites with better mechanical and thermal properties can be promising materials used in FDM 3D printing.

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