Three Dimensional Printing of Multiscale Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites Containing Graphene or Carbon Nanotubes

Three-dimensional printing offers a promising, challenging opportunity to manufacture component parts with ad hoc designed composite materials. In this study, the novelty of the research is the production of multiscale composites by means of a solvent-free process based on melt compounding of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), with various amounts of microfillers, i.e., milled (M) carbon fibers (CFs) and nanofillers, i.e., carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). The compounded materials were processed into compression molded sheets and into extruded filaments. The latter were then used to print fused filament fabrication (FFF) specimens. The multiscale addition of the microfillers inside the ABS matrix caused a notable increase in rigidity and a slight increase in strength. However, it also brought about a significant reduction of the strain at break. Importantly, GNPs addition had a good impact on the rigidity of the materials, whereas CNTs favored/improved the composites' electrical conductivity. In particular, the addition of this nanofiller was very effective in improving the electrical conductivity compared to pure ABS and micro composites, even with the lowest CNT content. However, the filament extrusion and FFF process led to the creation of voids within the structure, causing a significant loss of mechanical properties and a slight improvement of the electrical conductivity of the printed multiscale composites. Selective parameters have been presented for the comparison and selection of compositions of multiscale nanocomposites.