Solid-state shear milling method to prepare PA12/boron nitride thermal conductive composite powders and their selective laser sintering 3D-printing

The selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the most important 3D-printing technologies. However, the challenges in SLS could be in the limited high material cost and single material performance. Development of high-performance and multifunctional copowders suitable for SLS is of great importance. Here, polyamide 12 (PA12)/boron nitride (BN) thermal conductive copowders suitable for SLS were successfully prepared through solid state shear milling ((SM)-M-3) technology in combination with cryogenic pulverization technology. The particle size, morphology, grafting reaction between PA12 and BN, rheology behavior, and coalescence behavior of the obtained PA12/BN copowders were carefully investigated. The optimal amount of silica flow additive (0.5 wt %) was determined to achieve the good powder flowability. Under the optimum 3D-printing conditions, the fabrication of parts with high BN loading could be achieved. When BN content was at 40 wt %, the flexural strength could reach 10.6 MPa and the thermal conductivity could reach 0.55 W/m center dot k, 77% higher than that of pure PA12. After treated with phenolic epoxy resin, the tensile strength and flexural strength of the printed parts with 40 wt % BN loading could reach 14.2 and 25.6 MPa, which were 130 and 115% higher than those of the untreated 3D-printed parts, respectively. (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 137, 48766.