Development of fish scale particle reinforced PLA filaments for 3D printing applications

Abstract

This study investigated incorporating fish scale powder (FSP) as a bio‐filler into polylactic acid (PLA) raw material for polymeric 3D printing. The PLA/FSP filaments were evaluated for various properties (tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation, diameter deviation, thermogravimetric analysis, surface roughness, and SEM analysis) at different compositions (PLA, PLA/FSP10, PLA/FSP20, and PLA/FSP30 wt%). The results revealed that PLA filaments reinforced with 20 wt% FSP achieved the highest tensile strength, and modulus is 44.49 MPa and 2.83 GPa. The filaments reinforced with neat PLA and PLA with 10 wt% fish scale powder exhibited minor diameter deviations of +0.002 and −0.002. The surface roughness of the neat PLA filament is notably higher, registering a value of 1.459 μm. This finding highlights the importance of considering surface characteristics in filament selection for 3D printing applications. The microscopic analysis confirmed a uniform distribution of FSP particles in the 20 wt% composition PLA/FSP filaments. These results suggest that PLA/FSP (20 wt%) is an optimal feedstock for 3D printing, especially in developing biomaterials like bio‐scaffolds.