Fabrication of Conducting Polyacrylate Resin Solution with Polyaniline Nanofiber and Graphene for Conductive 3D Printing Application

Abstract

Three-dimensional printing based on the digital light processing (DLP) method offers solution processability, fast printing time, and high-quality printing through selective light curing of photopolymers. This research relates to a method of dispersing polyaniline nanofibers (PANI NFs) and graphene sheets in a polyacrylate resin solution for optimizing the conductive solution suitable for DLP-type 3D printing. Dispersion and morphology of the samples with different filler contents were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and optical microscope (OM) analyses. The polyacrylate composite solution employing the PANI NFs and graphene was printed well with various shapes and sizes through the 3D printing of DLP technology. In addition, the electrical properties of the printed sculptures have been investigated using a 4-point probe measurement system. The printed sculpture containing the PANI NFs and graphene sheets exhibited electrical conductivity (4.00 × 10−9 S/cm) up to 107 times higher than the pure polyacrylate (1.1 × 10−16 S/cm). This work suggests potential application of the PANI NF/graphene cofiller system for DLP-type 3D printing.