Thermal behavior of PC-ABS based graphene filled polymer nanocomposite synthesized by FDM process

Property enhancement of polymers could be achieved through blending of two or more polymers and via addition of filler materials to meet the application requirements. In the present investigation Polycarbonate (PC) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), the two polymers were blended together and Graphene platelets as nanofiller was added in the ratio of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 wt% respectively. Polymer blend and graphene platelets were mixed at appropriate temperature and extruded out in the form of filament of 1.75 mm diameter. Filament was used as a feed material for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) to develop the test samples. The nanocomposites developed using FDM were subjected to differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) to study the effect of graphene platelets. Addition of graphene platelets resulted in significant increase in Young's modulus with highest value of 4.038 GPa obtained for nanocomposite with 0.8% graphene content. Thermal analysis showed that addition of graphene platelets increases the glass transition temperature and reduces the mass with increase in temperature.