Fused Deposition Modeling of ABS-Barium Titanate Composites: A Simple Route towards Tailored Dielectric Devices

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 666
• Main Authors: Khatri, Bilal, Lappe, Karl, Habedank, Mathis, Mueller, Tobias, Megnin, Christof, Hanemann, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 14.06.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: 3-D printers; ABS resins; Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene; Barium; Barium titanates; Ceramics; Composite materials; Deposition; dielectric characterization; Dielectric properties; Fused deposition modeling; Investigations; material characterization; mechanical characterization; Modelling; Particle size; Permittivity; Polymer matrix composites; polymer-ceramic composites; Polymers; Rapid prototyping; Raw materials; Rheology; Shear thinning (liquids); Structural analysis; Three dimensional composites; Three dimensional printing; Ultimate tensile strength; Weight reduction; United States > US; Germany; fused deposition modeling; polymer-ceramic composites; material characterization; dielectric characterization; rapid prototyping; mechanical characterization
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym10060666

A process for the development, characterization and correlation of composite materials for 3D printing is presented, alongside the processing of a polymer-ceramic functional composite using fused deposition modeling (FDM). The composite was developed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as the matrix material filled with barium titanate (BT) micro-powder up to 35 vol % (74.2 wt %). The ABS-BT composites exhibited a shear thinning behavior with increasing ceramic content. The composite was 3D printed into structural and functional test samples using FDM by adapting and optimizing the print parameters. Structural characterization revealed increasingly brittle behavior at higher filler ratios, with the ultimate tensile strength falling from 25.5 MPa for pure ABS to 13.7 MPa for the ABS-35 vol % BT composite. Four-point flexural tests showed a similar decrease in flexural strength with increasing ceramic content. Functional characterization revealed an increase in the relative permittivity at 200 kHz from 3.08 for pure ABS to 11.5 for the composite with 35 vol % BT. These results were correlated with the Maxwell-Garnett and Jayasundere-Smith effective medium models. The process described in this work can be used for other 3D printing processes and provides a framework for the rapid prototyping of functional composites into functional parts with reliable properties. The ABS-BT composite shows promise as a functional dielectric material, with potential applications as capacitors and light-weight passive antennas.