MECHANICAL AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF PLA BASED NANOCOMPOSITES WITH GRAPHENE AND CARBON NANOTUBES

This work investigates thermal and mechanical properties of poly(lactic) acid (PLA) based composites with 6wt.% graphene nanoplates (GNP) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), produced by melt extrusion. The crystallization increases, from amorphous for the PLA (similar to 9%) to semicrystalline (similar to 18%) for all nanocomposites with adding only 6% of filler compared with the pure polymer. Dynamic mechanical measurements in torsion show that in temperatures lower than T-g (from -20 to 60 degrees C), when the material is in a solid state, the addition of a nanofiller, such as 6% graphene, results in an increase in storage modulus G' and loss modulus G '', which confirms the reinforcement effect of the nanofillers. We compare our material with the only one commercial benchmark filament Black Magic for 3D printing application with 14 wt.% graphene and carbon nanotubes.