Self-Monitoring Performance of 3D-Printed Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone Carbon Nanotube Composites

Lorenzo Paleari; Mario Bragaglia; Francesco Fabbrocino; Raimondo Luciano; Francesca Nanni

doi:10.3390/polym15010008

Self-Monitoring Performance of 3D-Printed Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone Carbon Nanotube Composites

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Dec 20;15(1):8. doi: 10.3390/polym15010008.

Authors

Lorenzo Paleari¹, Mario Bragaglia¹, Francesco Fabbrocino², Raimondo Luciano³, Francesca Nanni¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Enterprise Engineering Mario Lucertini, University of Rome Tor Vergata, and INSTM Research Unit Roma Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
² Department of Engineering, Pegaso Telematic University, 80143 Naples, Italy.
³ Department of Engineering, University of Naples Partenope, 80133 Naples, Italy.

Abstract

In this paper, poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) carbon-nanotube (CNT) self-monitoring composites at different levels of filler loading (i.e., 3, 5 and 10% by weight) have been extruded as 3D-printable filaments, showing gauge factor values of 14.5, 3.36 and 1.99, respectively. CNT composite filaments of 3 and 5 wt% were 3D-printed into tensile samples, while the PEEK 10CNT filament was found to be barely printable. The 3D-printed PEEK 3CNT and PEEK 5CNT composites presented piezo-resistive behavior, with an increase in electrical resistance under mechanical stress, and showed an average gauge factor of 4.46 and 2.03, respectively. Mechanical tests highlighted that 3D-printed samples have a laminate-like behavior, presenting ultimate tensile strength that is always higher than 60 MPa, hence they offer the possibility to detect damages in an orthogonal direction to the applied load wit high sensitivity.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; fused filament fabrication; poly-ether-ether-ketone; self-monitoring composites.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.