Microstructural and hydrophilic properties of polyethylene terephthalate glycol polymer samples with different 3D printing patterns

Abstract

The aim of the work is to study the influence of the 3-D printing process with the Hercules Original printer by sequentially applying polymer layers using the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) method on the microstructural and hydrophilic properties of polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) samples with different printing patterns. X-ray phase analysis revealed the presence of a greater ordering of amorphous PETG polymer chains in printed samples, which occurs during thermal and mechanical impact on the initial filamentous sample during 3D printing. This manifests itself in the increase of relative intensity for the main diffraction peak of the amorphous PETG polymer by an order of magnitude for all of the samples with five different print patterns. At the same time, IR spectroscopy data revealed the preservation of all intrastructural chemical bonds of the polymer both in the original thread and in printed samples. Close contact angles of about q≈50° for all printed samples, which is much smaller than the right angle q=90°, show that the surfaces of all five printed PETG samples with different patterns are hydrophilic

Keywords

• polyethylene terephthalate-glycol petg
• model drawings 3d printing
• x-ray amorphous phase
• ordering of polymer chains
• ir spectra
• intrastructural chemical bonds of the polymer
• hydrophilic surface