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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #311543
Title: 3D printing biocomposites

Author
item Tisserat, Brent
item Liu, Zengshe - Kevin
item Finkenstadt, Victoria
item Lewandowski, Branden
item Ott, Steven
item REIFSCHNEIDER, LOUIS - Illinois State University

Submitted to: Plastics Research Online
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2015
Publication Date: 2/23/2015
Citation: Tisserat, B., Liu, Z., Finkenstadt, V.L., Lewandowski, B., Ott, S., Reifschneider, L. 2015. 3D printing biocomposites. Plastics Research Online. DOI: 10.2417/spepro.005690.

Interpretive Summary: 3D printing is rapidly becoming a means to prototype new designs; however the cost of filament used is expensive and limiting. There is a great need to identify usable low cost lignocellulosic materials that can be compounded with thermoplastic resins to produce novel biocomposites that can be 3D printed. This study addresses this issue by employing dried distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) Osage orange (OOW) and Paulownia wood (PW) flour in poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-composites. These materials were selected because of their low cost and abundance. The mechanical properties of these specimen bars containing these composites were compared to neat PLA to evaluate their usability. All lignocellulosic materials exhibited performance issues in terms of their resultant mechanical and physical performances compared to neat PLA which clearly indicates further work is necessary to improve inter-facial binding between the matrix resin and the filler if these products are to be commercialized.

Technical Abstract: The mechanical properties of 3D printed tensile bars prepared from filaments obtained from blending DDGS and wood flour with PLA were compared to filament derived from neat PLA.