Morphology and mechanical properties of poly (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes nanocomposite specimens prepared by fused deposition modeling

In this work, poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) filaments containing 0, 1, 3, and 5 wt% multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were prepared by extrusion. The filaments were then used to make the required specimens with a fused deposition modeling machine. The results obtained from the tensile measurements revealed that with the increase in the layer thickness, the tensile strength of the printed specimens decreased; however, the raster angle did not have any significant effect on the properties. The transmission electron microscope images showed that for the sample containing 3 wt% MWCNT, nanoparticles were reasonably dispersed throughout the matrix. The scanning electron microscope images illustrated that the size of the voids formed within the specimens was increased with increasing of the layer thickness from 0.05 to 0.2 mm. It was also found that the maximum properties could be obtained by using the layer thickness, raster angle and MWCNT concentration of 0.05 mm, 45/-45 degrees, and 3 wt%, respectively. The results showed that both the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the filaments progressively increased with the increase of the nanofiller content in the range studied. It was found that for the constant layer thickness of 0.05 mm, all the specimens printed with single raster angles of 0, 45, and 90 degrees showed higher tensile strength in comparison with their counterparts printed with two raster angles of 0/90 degrees and 45/-45 degrees.