Tensile and flexural properties of PLA/Fe3O4 composite prepared with a novel powder delivery method and fused filament fabrication

Powder addition reinforcement (PAR) has shown its ability to enhance the mechanical properties of polymers prepared with fused filament fabrication (FFF). However, this technique was less reliable owing to the frequent printing failures caused by nozzle clogging. In this research, a novel delivery method for Fe3O4 powder was introduced and coupled to the FFF process for preparing PLA/Fe3O4 composite. The tensile and flexural properties of the resulting composite were then determined. The result showed that the addition of Fe3O4 powder increased both the tensile and flexural strengths of the composite. The highest strength of PLA/Fe3O4 composite was obtained in the specimen with 1 wt Fe3O4 powder content, where their tensile and flexural strengths increased by 59.92 and 53, respectively, with the addition of such amount of powder particles. However, higher powder contents led to deterioration of the composite strength. The microstructure of the composite apparently showed that the presence of Fe3O4 powder yielded a less porous structure in this material and improved the bonding between the printed rasters and layers within the composites, thereby enhancing their tensile and flexural properties. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.