Thermal and Mechanical Assessment of PLA-SEBS and PLA-SEBS-CNT Biopolymer Blends for 3D Printing

Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising biopolymers often used as a raw material in 3D printing many industrial areas. It has good mechanical properties, characterized by high strength and stiffness, but unfortunately, it some disadvantages; brittleness, other slow crystallization. Amounts 1–5% SEBS (styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene) thermoplastic elastomer were blended into PLA thermal properties investigated. DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) measurements on filaments have shown that increases initial temperature crystallization, thereby acting nucleating agent. The cooling rate printing, hand, too fast for PLA, so printed specimens behave almost amorphously. presence impact strength, neck formation appears during tensile test, bending mixture either suffers partial fracture or only bends without fracture. Samples containing 1% selected further analysis, mixed with 0.06 0.1% carbon nanotubes (CNTs), tested properties. As result CNTs, another peak appeared curve addition to original single-peak previously completely broken tests suffered fractures, partially fractured pieces regained their shape at end test.