Towards optimized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced polyetherimide (PEI) 3D printed structures: A comparative study on testing standards

Tailoring the properties of high-performance polymers through reinforcing will bring multifunctionality and expand their use in additive manufacturing (AM). However, machine material-based challenges exist, eventually resulting low-quality end products. When expensive are considered, it is still challenging to tailor print them for high-quality multifunctional structures. Here, polymer composites polyetherimide (PEI) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with varying CNT weight fractions produced filament form by melt-processing. Neat PEI, 1 wt% 3 CNTs/PEI additively manufactured two different raster orientations ( Rectilinear Concentric ), most proposed testing geometries, ASTM D638 D3039. Through effective melt-processing, CNTs-reinforced PEI filaments were achieved, printing parameters protocols discussed. As a result, D3039 showed superior coherence filaments’ mechanical properties. Moreover, based on failure modes, provided better compatibility AM, owing its simple rectangular yielding well-adhered layers.