Preparation and Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Poly(butylene succinate)/Talc Composites for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

In this paper, poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) with a low melting point and a similar performance to polyethylene is employed as a printing material; talc is introduced into the matrix to enhance the melt strength of pure PBS during printing. The PBS/talc composite 3D printing filament is prepared by melt extrusion, and the thermal, mechanical, morphological, and rheological properties of the composites are investigated. The results show that the addition of talc to PBS leads to an increase in crystallization temperature. In addition, the tensile and flexural strengths of the injection‐molded specimens increase when the talc concentration increases. However, the mechanical properties of the printed specimens exhibit an opposite variation trend due to their distinct forming process. The printing temperature is 135 °C, which is far lower than those of commercial grade polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) printing filaments. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that increasing the talc concentration creates better printed formability and well‐organized fracture surface structures. By comparing printed fishbones, the results suggest that the presence of talc leads to a good printing performance with the composite. Furthermore, the rheological results reveal that η*, G′, and G″ are enhanced by the addition of talc.

Properties of 3D Printable Poly(lactic acid)/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Blends and Nano Talc Composites

“…Figure 4 illustrates complex viscosity (η * ), storage modulus (G ′ ), and loss modulus (G ″ ) from viscoelastic behaviour of the PLA/PBAT blends and the 70/30-nano talc composites. The complex viscosity as a function of frequency of the PLA/PBAT blends and the composites exhibited pseudoplastic (shear thinning), whereas neat PLA exhibited Newtonian behaviour at higher frequency [18,27]. The complex viscosity of the blends increased when increasing the…”

“…Nano Talc Composites. Rheological properties of the blends and the composites are carried out for 3D printing technology in order to determine the printability, dimension stability, and interlayer adhesion in the 3D printing process [7,18,27]. Figure 4 illustrates complex viscosity (η * ), storage modulus (G ′ ), and loss modulus (G ″ ) from viscoelastic behaviour of the PLA/PBAT blends and the 70/30-nano talc composites.…”

“…It was considered that PBAT has long and flexible molecular chains resulting in elastic deformation due to molecular entanglement [5,22]. In addition, nano talc inhibited the movement of the polymer chains, which induced stiffness and solid like of molten polymer, especially at low frequency [14,27,[37][38][39]. An increment of the storage modulus of the composites informed fine distribution of nano talc and the interaction between nano talc and polymer matrix [5].…”

“…Several reports revealed that talc acts as the nucleating agent for PLA crystallization. The incorporation of talc increases stiffness and viscosity and improves thermal stability and heat distortion temperature of the composites, which would support dimensional stability in the 3D printing [26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…Zhou et al studied the preparation of 3D printing from PBS/talc composite filaments. [27]. Several reports revealed that talc acts as the nucleating agent for PLA crystallization.…”