Laser Sintering of Nano-Graphite-Reinforced Polyamide Composites for Next-Generation Smart Materials: A Preliminary Investigation of Processability and Electromechanical Properties
Multifunctional reinforced polymer composites provide an ideal platform for next-generation smart materials applications, enhancing matrix properties like electrical and thermal conductivity. Reinforcements are usually based on functional metal alloys, inorganic compounds, polymers, and carbon nanom...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5708 |
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| Summary: | Multifunctional reinforced polymer composites provide an ideal platform for next-generation smart materials applications, enhancing matrix properties like electrical and thermal conductivity. Reinforcements are usually based on functional metal alloys, inorganic compounds, polymers, and carbon nanomaterials. The latter have drawn significant interest in developing high-performance smart composites due to their exceptional mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. The increasing demand for highly complex functional structures has led additive manufacturing to become a reference technology for the production of smart material components. In this study, laser sintering technology was adopted to manufacture nano-graphite/nylon-12 composites with a carbon-based particle reinforcement content of up to 10% in weight. The results showed that the addition of the filler led to the fabrication of samples that reached an electrical conductivity of around 4·10<sup>−4</sup> S/cm, in contrast to the insulating behavior of a bare polymeric matrix (i.e., lower than 10<sup>−10</sup> S/cm), while maintaining a low production cost, though at the expense of mechanical performance under both tensile and bending loads. |
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| ISSN: | 2076-3417 |