Cellulose and Graphene Based Polyurethane Nanocomposites for FDM 3D Printing: Filament Properties and Printability

Izaskun Larraza , Julen Vadillo (1) , Tamara Calvo-Correas , Alvaro Tejado , Sheila Olza (1) , Cristina Peña-Rodríguez , Aitor Arbelaiz (2) , Arantxa Eceiza (3)

1 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
2 UPV / EHU - University of the Basque Country = Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
3 The University of the Basque Country, 20080 San Sebastian

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

3D printing has exponentially grown in popularity due to the personalization of each printed part it offers, making it extremely beneficial for the very demanding biomedical industry. This technique has been extensively developed and optimized and the advances that now reside in the development of new materials suitable for 3D printing, which may open the door to new applications. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most commonly used 3D printing technique. However, filaments suitable for FDM must meet certain criteria for a successful printing process and thus the optimization of their properties in often necessary. The aim of this work was to prepare a flexible and printable polyurethane filament parting from a biocompatible waterborne polyurethane, which shows potential for biomedical applications. In order to improve filament properties and printability, cellulose nanofibers and graphene were employed to prepare polyurethane based nanocomposites. Prepared nanocomposite filaments showed altered properties which directly impacted their printability. Graphene containing nanocomposites presented sound enough thermal and mechanical properties for a good printing process. Moreover, these filaments were employed in FDM to obtained 3D printed parts, which showed good shape fidelity. Properties exhibited by polyurethane and graphene filaments show potential to be used in biomedical applications.

Mots clés: FDM; waterborne polyurethane-urea nanocomposites; nanocomposite filaments

Domaines: Chimie

Izaskun Larraza, Julen Vadillo, Tamara Calvo-Correas, Alvaro Tejado, Sheila Olza, et al.. Cellulose and Graphene Based Polyurethane Nanocomposites for FDM 3D Printing: Filament Properties and Printability. Polymers, 2021, 13 (5), pp.839. ⟨10.3390/polym13050839⟩. ⟨hal-03279659⟩