Thermal and Electrical Investigation of Graphene-Enhanced Conductive Polylactic Acid Based Filaments for 3D-Printing

3d printing technologies have greatly evolved in the last decade, allowing the construction of complex structures with good mechanical properties and reduced costs. These aspects are interesting in some areas of electronics technology, like realization of electrical interconnections and sensors. The 3d printed structures realized with polylactic acid based filaments are cheaper to manufacture than standard copper-based technology for interconnects [1] but resistivity is too high. Presented paper analyzes graphene-enhanced polylactic acid (PLA) based conductive filament samples that offer lower resistivity. The variation of the DC resistance with temperature and impedance dependence on frequency are analyzed. The results in this paper can be used to develop new cost effective and easy to manufacture applications like printed temperature sensors, conductive traces, flexible thermal protection circuits, or new cases for electronic modules that could also act as a temperature fuse besides the default role of preventing ESD damaging.