From Waste to Filament: Development of Biomass-Derived Activated Carbon-Reinforced PETG Composites for Sustainable 3D Printing

Biomass-derivedactivated carbon enhances PETG 3D-printingfilaments, promoting sustainability by transforming waste into valuableresources and reducing environmental impact. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing not onlyoffers numerousadvantages over traditional manufacturing methods but also producesa significant amount of waste in the form of failed prints, supportstructures, and unused filaments. Thus, there is a need to developnovel and sustainable materials to replace conventional FDM filaments.We report a unique biomass (waste leaves)-derived activated carbonthat can be infused with polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG)to fabricate a sustainable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly classof 3D printing filaments that enable 3D printing of parts with superiormechanical properties. We investigate the key parameters that influencethe chemical, morphological, thermal, surface, and mechanical propertiesof our biomass-derived hydrochar, activated carbon, and PETG compositefilaments. The resulting samples are characterized using Fourier transforminfrared spectroscope, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope,contact angle meter, and a universal testing machine. We have observedthat while hydrochar can be incorporated with PETG to create biomass-derivedfilaments, incorporating activated carbon with PETG results in superiorfilaments. These composites can incorporate an extremely high biomassfiller weight percentage while enhancing mechanical strength by over30%. Our biomass-derived PETG composites were also thermally stableand more hydrophilic than the pure PETG samples. We analyze the mechanismby which activated carbon incorporation increases the PETG composites'mechanical strength with both physical and chemical techniques. Wealso demonstrate successful FDM 3D printing of personalized anatomicalmodels and porous cylindrical filter mesh using our biomass-derivedPETG composite filaments. Implementing such sustainable principlesin the 3D printing industry has the potential to transform it intoa restorative and sustainable system while simultaneously minimizingenvironmental pollution and waste.