Recent Developments in Additive Manufacturing of Conductive Polymer Composites

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, also named 3D printing, can be used to create objects from diverse polymers, metals, and other materials in diverse shapes and dimensions. If special physical or chemical properties are necessitated, using corresponding feedstock enables varying such properties in a broad range. Besides choosing a suitable base material, often composite materials are used for specific applications. Here, an overview of recent developments in 3D printing of polymer composites with conductive properties is given. After a definition of conductivity ranges and the respective potential applications, additive manufacturing methods applicable for these polymer composites as well as potential resistivity or resistance measurement methods are reported. An overview of the most recent reports of 3D printing polymer composites with different conductive fillers is followed by a summary of the applications found in the recent literature.

Measuring Physical Properties of Electrospun Nanofiber Mats for Different Biomedical Applications

“…The four-wire measurement (also known as four-terminal sensing or four-point probe) uses two outer current-introducing and two inner voltage-sensing electrodes, in this way becoming independent from the contact resistances. The van der Pauw method works similarly: while the four contacts are not aligned but positioned along the sample perimeter, the van der Pauw method measures the average sample resistivity, whereas the linear four-point probe method measures the resistivity along the electrode orientation [ 148 ]. Due to the expected high contact resistance, textile fabrics should normally be measured with the linear four-point probe or the van der Pauw method, depending on the desired information and the sample geometry.…”

Recent advances in structural design of conductive polymer composites for electromagnetic interference shielding

“…38 Conductive fillers mainly included the following categories: carbon-based fillers such as graphite, reduced graphene oxide (rGO), MWCNTs, CB, and CNFs; metalbased fillers such as AgNWs, CuNPs, and Al powder; MXene such as Ti 3 C 2 T x ; ICP fillers such as PANI, PTh, and PPy; compound fillers such as MXene@Fe 2 O 3 , rGO@Fe 3 O 4 , and Ag-plated CNFs, and so forth. 135 Compared with ICPs, filled CPCs have been widely used in the field of EMI shielding due to their superior strength, ease of processing, excellent flexibility, and costeffectiveness. However, most CPCs were fabricated by the traditional polymer processing methods, which usually required high energy consumption.…”

3D Printing with Biomaterials—The New Sustainable Future of Textiles?

“…higher flexibility by using multiple assemblies. But CAD systems have limitations adjusting, creating and saving large amounts of data when wrapping linkages ov complicated structures [5]. Material-based flexibility is still a small market segment du to the weakness and low tear resistance of current rubber-like materials.…”

“…Partial garment printing involves printing individual segments that are then assembled into a larger garment, while fabric-like printing, one of the most versatile techniques, involves trying to imitate textile-like structures, like a knitting, mesh or net structure, with geometrical forms to achieve a higher flexibility by using multiple assemblies. But CAD systems have limitations in adjusting, creating and saving large amounts of data when wrapping linkages over complicated structures [5].…”