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25th Croatian meeting of chemists and chemical engineers, Poreč, 2017.
Surface morphology modification of materials used for 3D printing
Modifikacija morfologije površine materijala koji se koriste u 3D tiskanju
Vedrana Lovinčić,1 Zana Hajdari Gretić,2 Domagoj Vrsaljko,2 Ivona Lovriša2
1
EURCO d.d., Vinkovci, Croatia
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb, Croatia
2
E-mail: [email protected]
Polylactide (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) are the two most commonly used
polymers in 3D printing using fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology. PLA is
biodegradable thermoplastic polymer of biological origin and is very interesting as a
substitute for plastic materials of petrochemical origin. ABS is thermoplastic polymer of
petrochemical origin with the ability to be easily injection molded and extruded which
makes it interesting for 3D printing by FDM technology.
In order to develop new materials for 3D printing of microreactors, these two
polymers were blended with high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) and low-density
polyethylene (PE-LD) in several ratios. In previous studies polymer blends were tested for
thermal, morphological and mechanical properties and it has been shown that the addition
of polyethylene can significantly modify the mechanical properties of materials used in 3D
printing [1].
The aim of this study was to investigate the possibilities of designing hydrophobicity
of PLA/PE-HD, PLA/PE-LD, ABS/PE-HD and ABS/PE-LD polymer blends to gain more control
over fluid flow inside microchannels of 3D printed microreactors. Polymer blends surfaces
were etched by using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and coated by fluorocarbon-based
material (CFx) plasma deposition treatment in the second step. It has been shown that the
surface morphology of PLA polymer blends can be highly modified by etching and CFx
coating. Treated surfaces showed contact angle up to 36° higher than the contact angle
measured on untreated surface. Surfaces achieving high contact angles (> 120°) create
“island like” surface morphology. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the longer time of
etching has significant impact on the contact angle values as well as surface morphology of
the PLA polymer blends, while the longer time of CFx coating has no significant impact on the
surface characteristics.
Opposite of the PLA polymer blends surface behaviour, it has been shown that the
surface of ABS polymer blends cannot be significantly changed by ICP etching and CF x
coating. Also, no characteristic “island like” surface morphology was created on the ABS
polymer blends surfaces.
This work has been supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project
entitled “Development of materials for 3D printing of microreactors” (UIP-2014-09-3154).
References
[1] V. Lovinčić, Z. Hajdari Gretić and D. Vrsaljko, Book of proceedings of V. Croatian Symposium on
Chemistry and Technology of Macromolecules in the Function of Smart Specialization, Croatian
Society of Chemical Engineers, Zagreb, 2016.