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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.