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Substrate Coating Produced via Additive Manufacturing with Conducting Polymers: Assessment in The Development of Electrodes

Abstract

The production of conductive and organic devices from a 3D printer represents a promising strategy for several areas. In particular, the synthesis of polypyrrole-coated acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites can be considered an important step to produce conductive supports for 3D printing. Herein, it is reported the production of ABS samples through the additive manufacturing process (3D printing) accordingly to the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method. The hydrophilic behavior was controlled by the surface treatment using air plasma for the following step of coating with polypyrrole (PPy) via an in situ polymerization, using two different oxidants: ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) and ammonium persulfate (APS). The chemical, optical, surface, and electrical properties of these materials were characterized through Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle measurements, cyclic voltammetry, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), 4-probe electrical measurement, and mechanical tensile testing. The ABS/PPy (FeCl3) composite exhibited a low electrical contact resistance and better performance for applications that require electrodes with a good conductance level.

Keywords:
Additive manufacturing; ABS; Conductive polymer; Polypyrrole


1. Introduction

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology, first introduced in the 1980s for model building and prototyping, has been commercially available in various forms of 3D printers11 Ngo TD, Kashani A, Imbalzano G, Nguyen KTQ, Hui D. Additive manufacturing (3D printing): a review of materials, methods, applications and challenges. Compos. B. Eng. 2018;143:172-96.. Unlike conventional conformity and subtractive manufacturing, the strength of 3D printing is the ability to manufacture high-quality, customizable parts from polymers, metals, and ceramics without the requirements from expensive molding or machining procedures11 Ngo TD, Kashani A, Imbalzano G, Nguyen KTQ, Hui D. Additive manufacturing (3D printing): a review of materials, methods, applications and challenges. Compos. B. Eng. 2018;143:172-96.,22 Zhangwei C, Ziyong L, Junjie L, Chengbo L, Changyong L, Yang L, et al. 3D printing of ceramics: a review. J. Eur. Ceram. 2018;39:661-87. favoring the development of shorter and less expensive new product development cycles, through the additive manufacturing technique, it is possible to revalidate geometries and models. In addition to being widely applied in the area of product development and design, the technique is already well known in the medical field for making custom surgical guides and prostheses, for the acquisition of tomographic data and to produce a CAD file that can be a 3D printed template to reproduce the dimensions and specific features of each patient in a personalized way33 Sing SL, An J, Yeong WY, Wiria FE. Laser and electron‐beam powder‐bed additive manufacturing of metallic implants: a review on processes, materials and designs. J Orthop Res. 2016;34(3):369-85. ,44 Walker M, Humphries S. 3D Printing: applications in evolution and ecology. Ecol Evol. 2019;9:4289-301.. Furthermore, the use of several new materials, including nanomaterials, functional/smart materials, or even quick-drying concrete, has become possible, enabling the technique to be applied in the civil construction and architecture market. 3D printing technology has already been shown to allow the manufacture of several houses in a single day55 Zhu C, Liu T, Qian F, Chen W, Chandrasekaran S, Yao B, et al. 3D printed functional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage. Nano Today. 2017;15:107-20.

6 Wu P, Wang J, Wang X. A critical review of the use of 3-D printing in the construction industry. Autom Construct. 2016;68:21-31.
-77 Kira WS. China builds world's first 3D printed villa and tallest 3D printed apartment building [Internet]. 2015 (cited 2021 Mar 5). Available from: https://3d-expo.ru/en/article/winsun-china-builds-world-s-first-3d-printed-villa-and-tallest-3d-printed-apartment-building
https://3d-expo.ru/en/article/winsun-chi...
. In the electronics industry, the technique has been heavily used in the fabrication of devices capable of storing electrochemical energy, where the unique properties offered by 3D printing can be explored88 Lee CY, Taylor AC, Nattestad A, Beirne S, Wallace GG. 3D printing for electrocatalytic applications. Joule. 2019;3(8):1835-49.. Some studies already report that carefully designed 3D structures show better performance in batteries and supercapacitors99 Rolison DR, Long JW, Lytle JC, Fischer AE, Rhodes CP, Mcevoy TM, et al. Multifunctional 3D nanoarchitectures for energy storage and conversion. Chem Soc Rev. 2009;38:226-52.,1010 Osiak M, Geaney H, Armstrong E, O’dwyer C. Structuring materials for lithium-ion batteries: advancements in nanomaterial structure, composition, and defined assembly on cell performance. J Mater Chem. 2014;2:9433-60.. In addition, some studies have incorporated conductive polymers in the 3D printing process, enabling applications in gas sensing1111 Elwood J, Lin L. A 3D printed ethanol sensor using conformally-coated conductive polymer electrodes. In 20th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems & Eurosensors XXXIII. Proceedings. New York: IEEE; 2019. p. 1230-3.,1212 Wu T, Gray E, Chen B. Self-healing, adaptive and conductive polymer composite ink for 3D printing of gas sensors. J Mater Chem C Mater Opt Electron Devices. 2018;6(23):6200-7. and also in the field of biomedical applications for bone regeneration and drug transport throughout the body1313 Zhou J, Vijayavenkataraman S. 3D-printable conductive materials for tissue engineering and biomedical applications. Bioprinting. 2021;24:e00166.

14 Vijayavenkataraman S, Kannan S, Cao T, Fuh JYH, Sriram G, Lu WF. 3D-Printed PCL/PPy conductive scaffolds as three-dimensional porous Nerve Guide Conduits (NGCs) for peripheral nerve injury repair. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2019;7:266.
-1515 Lawrence MT, Séguin C, Price A. 3D printed polypyrrole scaffolds for pH-dependent drug delivery for bone regeneration. In: Nano-, Bio-, Info-Tech Sensors and Wearable Systems. Proceedings. Washington: SPIE; 2021. p. 70-7. .

All of these technological achievements show that 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the traditional manufacturing process, from the aerospace industry to construction and electronics1616 Shahrubudin N, Lee TC, Ramlan R. An overview on 3D printing technology: technological, materials, and applications. Procedia Manuf. 2019;35:1286-96.. Conducting polymers represent a new class of electronic materials that have attracted growing interest in additive manufacturing, due to the competitive advantages of their electronic and optical properties over conventional polymers, with applications in artificial muscles, manufacturing of electronic devices, solar energy conversion, rechargeable batteries, and sensors1717 Ates M, Karazehir T, Sezai Sarac AJCPC. Conducting polymers and their applications. Curr Phys Chem. 2012;2(3):224-40. . Within this class of materials, one of the conductive polymers that stand out is polypyrrole (PPy), due to its easy synthesis, stability in oxidized form, high electrical conductance, and good redox properties1818 Benseddik E, Makhlonki M, Bernede JC, Lefrant S, Pron A. XPS studies of environmental stability of polypyrrole-poly (vinyl alcohol) composites. Synth Met. 1995;72(3):237-42.. These excellent intrinsic properties make PPy a potential candidate for several applications, such as supercapacitors, batteries, biosensors, antistatic coatings, textiles and fabrics, and shielding1919 Panero S, Passerini S, Scrosati B. Conducting Polymers: new electrochromic materials for advanced optical devices. Mol Cryst Liq. 1993;229(1):97-109.. Furthermore, PPy has excellent stimuli-responsive properties that make it a very intelligent biomaterial, allowing the dynamic control of its properties by applying an electric field2020 Garner B, Georgevich A, Hodgson AJ, Liu L, Wallace CG. Polypyrrole-heparin composites as stimulus-responsive substrates for endothelial cell growth. J Biomed Mater Res. 1999;44(2):121-9.. Herein, it is proposed a simple and efficient procedure to be applied in the chemical modification of ABS-based 3D printed surfaces with low resistance levels. With this aim, the general procedure for the polypyrrole deposition on ABS substrate was conducted to preserve good mechanical properties of the substrate incorporating outstanding properties of the conducting polymers. Two different oxidants (ferric chloride and ammonium persulfate), were explored as a part of a strategy to synthesize the composite samples, characterized through their chemical, optical, morphological, electrical, and mechanics through different techniques.

2. Experimental Section

2.1. Materials

The acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene filament was obtained from 3D Fila, Brazil. The pyrrole monomer and the ammonium persulfate (APS) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich, USA. The ferric chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3.6H2O) was obtained from Dinâmica, Brazil. The potassium hydroxide (KOH), the sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and the potassium chloride (KCl) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich, Brazil. The deionized water (H2O) used in all experiments was obtained from an ultrapure water purification system from Millipore, USA.

2.2. Synthesis of ABS samples

The samples were modeled via SolidWorks v2018 (Dassault Systèmes, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France) and the Simplify 3D software (v. 3.0.2) was used as the slicer to configure the G code for the two types of samples that were produced. The first type, a square sample of 15 mm x 15 mm of ABS (225 mm2) with a thickness of 1 mm, and the second type, produced in the specifications of test specimens for tensile testing following ASTM D638-14 Type V. The ABS samples were manufactured using an FDM 3D printer ANET A8 - 2017 (Shenzhen, China) with a filament of 1.75 mm diameter and an extruder with a 0.4 mm nozzle diameter. For the filling, the process was settled with a 100% infill, the direction of the layers was +45°/-45° at 230°C and 90°C for the extruder and the heated bed, respectively. At the end of the printing process, the removal of samples only took place after the heated table reached ambient temperature (25°C), to avoid warping defects.

2.3. Coating of polypyrrole on ABS samples

The ABS sample was exposed to an air plasma treatment for 5 min under a vacuum of 300 mTorr, to improve the hydrophilic character of its surface, using a PDC-002 Plasma Cleaner (Harrick, USA)2121 Aguiar MF, Leal ANR, Melo CP, Alves KGB. Polypyrrole-coated electrospun polystyrene films as humidity sensors. Talanta. 2021;234:122636.. To carry out the in situ polymerization of the pyrrole monomers, the samples were immersed in a beaker with deionized water. Then, 0.48 mmol of pyrrole was added to a (48 mL) aqueous solution in a (250 mL) beaker and the solution was stirred for 30 minutes2121 Aguiar MF, Leal ANR, Melo CP, Alves KGB. Polypyrrole-coated electrospun polystyrene films as humidity sensors. Talanta. 2021;234:122636.. The ABS samples were introduced into the beaker, and the stirring was allowed to proceed for an additional period of 30 minutes. Finally, (2 mL) of a 0.24 M solution of ferric chloride was added to induce the polymerization, with a constant stirring being maintained for different amounts of time (2, 4, 6, 8, and 24 h). Afterward, the newly-formed ABS/PPy (FeCl3) samples were collected, washed several times with deionized water, and dried under ambient conditions. For samples that were coated with polypyrrole, using ammonium persulfate, the polymerization procedure followed the same steps, only adjusting the concentration of the prepared solution (2 mmol of pyrrole to prepare a 1 M solution of APS). The complete scheme of production of the preparation of electrodes for the following step of polymerization is shown in Figure 1 in which a single sample was coated per step.

Figure 1
Schematic representation for the production of samples and the following polymerization at increasing time conditions.

2.4. Characterization

The wettability of the samples was evaluated using static water drops in a CAM 100 contact angle meter (KSV, Finland) using 15 samples per polymerization process (FeCl3 and APS). Contact angles were determined 30 s after the contact of the drop of 10 μL of distilled water and the surface. The surface morphology analysis was performed from a MIRA3 scanning electron microscope (TESCAN, CZ) under two different magnifications (5000x and 50000x). The corresponding Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra were obtained in the 4000-600 cm-1 range using a Perkin Elmer model Spectrum 400 with NIR/MIR measuring range, using the Total Attenuated Reflectance (ATR) accessory. The tensile test was obtained using an MTS Exceed Universal Tensile Test Machine - Series 40 Electromechanical Universal Testing Systems, Model E42.503 (MTS, China). The tensile test procedures followed the American Society of Testing Material (ASTM) D638 - 14 and the specimen selected was Type V. The 3D printing of the samples according to the following specifications: orientation of alternating layers between +45° and -45°; layer height of 0.2 mm and all samples were fully filled. The deformation rate adopted was 1 mm/min. The electrical response of the ABS/PPy samples was determined by four-probe measurements using a 2400 SourceMeter multimeter (Keithley, USA) under a voltage range of -1 V to 1 V, in a linear sweep mode. The resistance was then determined through a linear fitting from the current-voltage curves. Cyclic Voltammetry measurements were obtained using a µAutolab PGSTAT 128N Potentiostat/Galvanostat (Ecochemie, Netherlands), interfaced with NOVA 1.8 software.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Contact angle measurements

For samples produced in pure ABS, the calculated contact angle was 87.1° ± 2.0°, as shown in Figure 2a, in agreement with the results for the contact angle 3D printed ABS reported in the literature, which varies between 81.0° and 99.5°2222 Yang H, Ji F, Li Z, Tao S. Preparation of hydrophobic surface on PLA and ABS by fused deposition modeling. Polymers (Basel). 2020;12(7):1539.,2323 Ji Y, Ma Y, Ma Y, Asenbauer J, Passerini S, Streb C. Water decontamination by polyoxometalate-functionalized 3D-printed hierarchical porous devices. Chem Commun (Camb). 2018;54(24):3018-21. . It was observed that after the application of the plasma, the contact angle of the pure ABS samples was reduced to approximately 75.4° ± 3.4°, as can be seen in Figure 2b. Literature reports the effect of the plasma treatment time in polymer samples used in 3D printing such as ABS, and indicated that the contact angle range can vary between 95° and 41° after plasma application for 30 min2424 Abourayana H, Dobbyn P, Dowling D. Enhancing the mechanical performance of additive manufactured polymer components using atmospheric plasma pre-treatments. Plasma Process Polym. 2017;15(3):1700141.. It was observed that, regardless of the oxidant used, after the coating with the conductive polymer, the general reduction in the contact angle value. As shown in Figure 2c, the values proved a greater reduction in the contact angle for the case of samples coated with PPy (APS), for which the average contact angle was 50.2° ± 0.5°. For the samples coated with PPy FeCl3, (Figure 2d), the mean value obtained was 63.9° ± 1.8°. Thus, the samples coated with polypyrrole showed a hydrophilic character, with the coating with PPy/APS leading to the most hydrophilic composite. It is known that the contact angle values for coating with polypyrrole can vary depending on the concentration of the oxidant used in the process2525 Wang C, Wang Y, Song X, Huang M, Jiang H. A facile and general strategy to deposit polypyrrole on various substrates for efficient solar‐driven evaporation. Adv Susta Syst. 2019;3(1):1800108. ,2626 Yang X, Ma K, Yang L, Chen Y, Qu Y, Wang Y, et al. Influence of magnetic field on morphological structures and physiological characteristics of bEnd.3 cells cultured on polypyrrole substrates. RSC Advances. 2019;9(70):40887-94.. The difference in wettability was also observed in other studies in the literature in which both oxidants were compared2727 Lee S, Park CH. Conductivity, superhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of cotton fabric treated with polypyrrole by in-situ polymerization using the binary oxidants ammonium Peroxodisulfate and ferric chloride. Text Res J. 2019;89(12):2376-94.,2828 Yussuf A, Al-Saleh M, Al-Enezi S, Abraham G. Synthesis and characterization of conductive polypyrrole: the influence of the oxidants and monomer on the electrical, thermal, and morphological properties. Int J Polym Sci. 2018;2018:1800108. . The differences observed in the contact angle can be attributed to two different aspects: the first is the surface roughness due to the deposition of polypyrrole, in which a double structure is formed, and the second is the surface energy change due to the modification of the chemical composition of the polypyrrole2727 Lee S, Park CH. Conductivity, superhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of cotton fabric treated with polypyrrole by in-situ polymerization using the binary oxidants ammonium Peroxodisulfate and ferric chloride. Text Res J. 2019;89(12):2376-94.. The polypyrrole chains consist of a cation-charged conjugated backbone containing negatively charged counter-ions. This conductive polymer also has a wide range of wettability from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity depending on the characteristics of the counter-ions and the doping level2929 Darmanin T, Guittard F. Wettability of conducting polymer: from superhydrophilicity to superoleophobicity. Prog Polym Sci. 2014;39:656-82.

30 Xu L, Chen W, Mulchandani A, Yan Y. Reversible conversion of conducting polymer films from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2005;44:6009-12.
-3131 Lee S, Park CH. Conductivity, superhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of cotton fabric treated with polypyrrole by in-situ polymerization using the binary oxidants ammonium Peroxodisulfate and ferric chloride. Text Res J. 2019;89(12):2376-94. .

Figure 2
Contact angles of the ABS (a) and ABS-Plasma (b) and ABS/PPy(APS) (c) and ABS/PPy(FeCl3) (d) samples.

3.2. Four-point probe resistance measurements

The conductance of the composite depends on the type and thickness of the PPy coating. From the four-point measurements (in which electrodes for current injection and voltage determination are independent - reducing effects of electrical contacts overall measurement of resistance), it was possible to obtain the electrical resistance values of the ABS samples coated with polypyrrole with two different oxidants (APS and FeCl3). The ABS/PPy (FeCl3) samples coated after 2 hours already presented a conductive character, with an average resistance of 2791.2 Ω. The ABS/PPy(APS) samples showed a higher resistance. For instance, the average resistance of the samples coated after 2 hours of pyrrole polymerization in the presence of APS was 25630.3 Ω, i.e., the samples prepared with APS exhibited a resistance 10 times higher than those of samples manufactured with FeCl3. After 24 hours of PPy deposition, the average resistance value decreases to 2323.8 Ω. From the result shown in Figure 3, it is possible to notice the drop in the resistance value and the increasingly conductive behavior of the samples as a function of time. However, the coated parts that used the oxidizing ferric chloride, showed higher conductive levels throughout the experiment. For experiments in which the APS was used as an oxidant, the conductance was lower compared to that in FeCl3 due to the over-oxidation of the polymer conjugation main chain2727 Lee S, Park CH. Conductivity, superhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of cotton fabric treated with polypyrrole by in-situ polymerization using the binary oxidants ammonium Peroxodisulfate and ferric chloride. Text Res J. 2019;89(12):2376-94.,2828 Yussuf A, Al-Saleh M, Al-Enezi S, Abraham G. Synthesis and characterization of conductive polypyrrole: the influence of the oxidants and monomer on the electrical, thermal, and morphological properties. Int J Polym Sci. 2018;2018:1800108. .

Figure 3
Electrical resistance as a function of the coating time in ABS/PPy samples.

3.3. Scanning electron microscope

The images of the pure ABS parts can be seen in Figures 4a and 4b. As can be seen, the surface is very irregular with an accentuated roughness due to the non-uniform coating that takes place during the layer deposition process. The roughness and surface defects were also observed in some comparative studies between ABS parts printed in 3D by the FDM method and parts produced via plastic injection, in which the injected samples had a lower surface roughness and greater uniformity, while 3D printed samples had a more irregular surface3232 Paganin LC, Barbosa GF. A comparative experimental study of additive manufacturing feasibility faced to injection molding process for polymeric parts. Int J Adv Manuf Technol. 2020;109(9-12):2663-77.

33 Xiaoran L, Guo J, Li W, Zhang L, Wang C, Guo B, et al. Analysis of morphology and electrical insulation of 3D printing parts. In International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Application; Athens, Greece. Proceedings. New York: IEEE; 2018.
-3434 Vidakis N, Petousis M, Maniadi A, Koudoumas E, Kenanakis G, Romanitan C, et al. The mechanical and physical properties of 3D-printed materials composed of ABS-ZnO nanocomposites and ABS-ZnO microcomposites. Micromachines (Basel). 2020;11(6):615.. Figures 4c and 4d show the SEM images of a cross-section of the ABS specimen before and after a tensile test, respectively. In Figure 4d, it is possible to identify the regions of voids due to the additive manufacturing process via the FDM method, the smaller dots, highlighted in the dotted region, are a natural characteristic of the process, as the cast filament is extruded in a cylindrical shape. As present in the literature, the dimension of the void regions in the 3D printed samples is directly associated with the height of the layer configured in the process and the diameter of the nozzle used, these void regions directly impact the mechanical properties of the parts produced via additive manufacturing3535 Garzon-Hernandez S, Garcia-Gonzalez D, Jérusalem A, Arias A. Design of FDM 3D printed polymers: an experimental-modelling methodology for the prediction of mechanical properties. Mater Des. 2020;188:108414. . It is also possible to identify two regions of a void that stand out due to a large discrepancy concerning the others, as indicated in the solid line region. In general, these defects are associated with discontinuity problems in the melt deposition flow; in turn, the flow discontinuity can be a slip failure between the tractor gear and the filament, or even a defect of bubbles in the material3636 Tronvoll SA, Welo T, Elverum CW. The effects of voids on structural properties of fused deposition modelled parts: a probabilistic approach. Int J Adv Manuf Technol. 2018;97(9-12):3607-18. . Figure 5a-d shows the results for the coating of ABS samples with polypyrrole using APS and FeCl3 as oxidants, respectively. As shown in the micrograph of the ABS/PPy (APS) samples, it was possible to cover the ABS surface with the conducting polymer layer. However, this coating occurred in a non-homogeneous way, as can be seen by the presence of some agglomeration points. The same happened with the ABS/PPy samples. FeCl3. Another important point to highlight is the dependence of the coating based on time, as the surfaces of the coated samples after 24 hours of polymerization show a better homogeneity of distribution of nanoparticles when compared to the coated samples with times of 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours, both for the case of coating with either APS or FeCl3. The oxidation-reduction potential of APS was higher than that of FeCl3, causing a faster oxidation speed3333 Xiaoran L, Guo J, Li W, Zhang L, Wang C, Guo B, et al. Analysis of morphology and electrical insulation of 3D printing parts. In International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Application; Athens, Greece. Proceedings. New York: IEEE; 2018.. The fast oxidation speed increased the nucleation and growth rate of polypyrrole, resulting in the formation of metastable particles during the primary nucleation process. The metastable particles aggregated with each other through secondary nucleation to maintain a more stable state, thereby forming larger particles2727 Lee S, Park CH. Conductivity, superhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of cotton fabric treated with polypyrrole by in-situ polymerization using the binary oxidants ammonium Peroxodisulfate and ferric chloride. Text Res J. 2019;89(12):2376-94.,2828 Yussuf A, Al-Saleh M, Al-Enezi S, Abraham G. Synthesis and characterization of conductive polypyrrole: the influence of the oxidants and monomer on the electrical, thermal, and morphological properties. Int J Polym Sci. 2018;2018:1800108. .

Figure 4
SEM micrograph of the ABS sample with different magnifications (a and b) and cross-section of the ABS specimen before (c) and after (d) a tensile test.
Figure 5
SEM micrograph of ABS/PPy (APS) substrates polymerized for 24 hours (a) - magnification of 5 kx, and b) magnification of 50 kx and ABS/PPy (FeCl3) substrates polymerized for 24 hours (c) magnification of 5 kx and d) magnification of 50 kx.

3.4. Evaluation of the stress-strain of samples

The values obtained in the tensile test can be seen in Table 1 in which values for yield stress and strain rate for the ABS samples are in agreement with the results found in the literature3737 Żur P, Żur A, Baier A, Kokot G. Optimization of Abs 3D-printing method and parameters. Eur J Eng Sci Tech (Paris). 2020;3(1):44-51., whose results obtained for ABS with 100% filling (230 °C/100 °C), were 34.02 MPa for the yield stress and specific strain at break of 0.127 mm/mm, respectively. For tensile tests, the obtained average value for the yield stress limit was 4.0% lower in comparison with the value reported in the literature3737 Żur P, Żur A, Baier A, Kokot G. Optimization of Abs 3D-printing method and parameters. Eur J Eng Sci Tech (Paris). 2020;3(1):44-51.. Such variation is due to the variability of ABS filament suppliers and the hotbed temperature, which for the test was 10°C lower. Other studies corroborate the results obtained for the yield stress limit, specific strain, and tensile strength limit3838 Rodríguez JF, Thomas JP, Renaud JE. Mechanical behavior of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene fused deposition materials modeling. Rapid Prototyping J. 2003;9(4):219-30.,3939 Alvarez K, Lagos R, Aizpun M. Investigating the influence of infill percentage on the mechanical properties of fused deposition modelled ABS parts. Ing Invest. 2016;36:110-6..

Table 1
Results of the tensile test of polypyrrole-coated ABS specimens.

For the ABS/PPy (APS) specimens, the values found for the yield stress, rupture, and Young's modulus had very low variations in comparison with the values of the ABS specimens. For σE, there was a reduction of 1.8%. For σR, the reduction was 3.7% and for E the reduction was 0.4%. It is worth noting that the values obtained in the PPy-coated ABS test are within the range established by the standard deviation, thus, in a strong indication that the coating with conductive polymer did not affect the mechanical behavior of pure ABS since it is a surface process of coating with minimal influence on bulky properties of the ABS substrate (no corrosive steps in the process).

3.5. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

The FTIR spectra of the ABS Samples (before and after the plasma treatment) and the hybrid ABS/PPy (FeCl3) and ABS/PPy (APS) are shown in Figure 6. The spectrum of ABS before plasma treatment is the same as the ABS sample after plasma treatment. The characteristic Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene bands, which are evident in Figures 6a and 6b, correspond to i) the C-H aromatic ring stretching at 3026 cm-1, ii) the C≡N axial stretching at 2237cm-1 characteristic of acrylonitrile group, iii) the C ═ N axial stretching and the C-C aromatic ring angular stretching at 1602 cm-1, iv) the C-H aromatic ring angular stretching and bending vibration at 1495 cm-140,41, v) the CH3 asymmetric and symmetric stretching, respectively at 1453 and 1365 cm-1, vi) the C ═ C angular stretching at 966 cm-1 and, finally, the vibration bands at 759 and 697 cm-1 are related to C-H angular stretching of the monosubstituted aromatic ring and the out-of-plane angular stretching of the aromatic ring, respectively4040 Ferreira AC, Diniz MF, Mattos EC. FT-IR methodology (transmission and UATR) to quantify automotive systems. Polímeros. 2018;28(1):6-14.

41 Smith AL. Applied infrared spectroscopy. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1979.

42 Zhang SU. Degradation classification of 3D printing thermoplastics using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and artificial neural networks. Appl Sciences. 2018;8:1224.

43 Liu G, Liao Y, Ma X. Thermal behavior of vehicle plastic blends contained acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) in pyrolysis using TG-FTIR. J Waste Manag. 2017;61:315-26.
-4444 Truc N, Lee BK. Selective separation of ABS/PC containing BFRs from ABSs mixture of WEEE by developing hydrophilicity with ZnO coating under microwave treatment. J Hazard Mater. 2017;329:84-91.. For the ABS samples treated with plasma, it was possible to identify the presence of all vibration bands characteristic of ABS, without highlighting extra peaks.

Figure 6
FTIR spectra of the ABS sample (a), ABS/PPy (FeCl3) (b), and ABS/PPy (APS) (c).

As could be expected, characteristic bands of both ABS and polypyrrole are present in the ABS/PPy spectrum. The characteristic PPy bands, which are evident in Figure 6c correspond to i) the pyrrole ring C=C and C-C stretching vibrations can be identified at 1559/1556 and 1473 cm-1, respectively4545 Fu Y, Manthiram A. Sulfur-polypyrrole composite cathodes for lithium-sulfur batteries. RSC Advances. 2012;2:5927-9.,4646 Tabačiarová J, Mičušík M, Fedorko P, Omastová M. Study of polypyrrole aging by XPS, FTIR and conductivity measurements. Polym. Degrad. 2015;120:392-401., ii) the pyrrole C-N stretching ring vibration at 1184 or 1185 cm-1 4545 Fu Y, Manthiram A. Sulfur-polypyrrole composite cathodes for lithium-sulfur batteries. RSC Advances. 2012;2:5927-9.,4747 Minisy IM, Bober P, Acharya U, Trchová M, Hromádková J, Pfleger J, et al. Cationic dyes as morphology-guiding agents for one-dimensional polypyrrole with improved conductivity. Polymer (Guildf). 2019;174:11-7.,4848 Reung-U-Rai A, Prom-Jun A, Ouajai W, Ouajai S. Synthesis of highly conductive polypyrrole nanoparticles via microemulsion polymerization. J Met Mater Miner. 2008;18(2):27-31.. iii) the pyrrole C-H and N-H stretching vibrations can be identified at 1314/1315 and 1046 or 1047 cm-1 4545 Fu Y, Manthiram A. Sulfur-polypyrrole composite cathodes for lithium-sulfur batteries. RSC Advances. 2012;2:5927-9.,4747 Minisy IM, Bober P, Acharya U, Trchová M, Hromádková J, Pfleger J, et al. Cationic dyes as morphology-guiding agents for one-dimensional polypyrrole with improved conductivity. Polymer (Guildf). 2019;174:11-7.,4949 Číková E, Mičušík M, Šišková A, Procházka M, Fedorko P, Omastová M. Conducting electrospun polycaprolactone/polypyrrole fibers. Synth Met. 2018;235:80-8.. iv) the C-H out-of-plane angular stretching 965/966 and 910 cm-1 5050 Alves KGB, Andrade CAS, Campello SL, Souza RE, Melo CP. Magnetite/polypyrrole hybrid nanocomposites as a promising magnetic resonance imaging contrast material. J Appl Polym Sci. 2013;128(5):3170-6.,5151 Sunilkumar A, Manjunatha S, Chethan B, Ravikiran Y, Machappa T. Polypyrrole-Tantalum disulfide composite: an efficient material for fabrication of room temperature operable humidity sensor. Sens Actuators A Phys. 2019;298:111593..

3.6. Electrochemical measurements

The electrochemical properties of the ABS/PPy electrodes (FeCl3) with 24h of synthesis were determined through cyclic voltammetry performed at room temperature in the potential range of -1 V to +1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) within the scan rates range of 20-500 mV s-1 in 1 M H2SO4 and 2M KOH. As expected for polypyrrole-based compounds, the shape migrates from a conventional rectangular shape of carbon derivatives to a prolate curve (cone-shaped behavior) as reported in the literature5252 Alcaraz-Espinoza JJ, Oliveira HP. Flexible supercapacitors based on a ternary composite of polyaniline/polypyrrole/graphite on gold coated sandpaper. Electrochim Acta. 2018;274:200-7. (Figures 7a and 7b). The specific capacitance of the ABS/PPy electrodes was calculated from the obtained voltammograms, according to Equation 1:

C s p = 2 A Δ V . v . m (1)

where Csp is the specific capacitance (F g-1), A corresponds to the integral area of the current-voltage curve, ΔV is the potential window, v is the scan rate, and m is the weight of the material (in g).

Figure 7
Cyclic voltammograms of ABS/PPy (FeCl3) with 24 hours of coating evaluated at different scan rates in KOH 2.0M (a) and H2SO4 1M (b). The specific capacitance evolution as a function of scan rate is shown in (c).

As shown in Figure 7c, for both electrolytes, it was observed that the specific capacitance (F g-1) decreases with the increase in the scan rate, an expected result, due to the characteristic time of response for charge accumulation and redox reactions. As reported in the literature, this process is established at low scanning rates due to the appropriate time for the ions to diffuse into the pores and defects existing in the evaluated ABS/PPy (FeCl3), which plays an essential role in developing electric double layers5353 Konikkara N, Kennedy LJ. Electrochemical properties of solid leather wastes based supercapacitor electrodes using H2SO4 electrolyte. Mater Lett. 2017;205:56-61.. Moreover, this result suggests that the composite is limited for redox transitions at high scan rates based operation, leading to reduce electrochemical performance under increased scan rate5454 Shinde SS, Gund GS, Kumbhar VS, Patil BH, Lokhande CD. Novel chemical synthesis of polypyrrole thin film electrodes for supercapacitor application. Eur Polym J. 2013;49(11):3734-9..

4. Conclusion

Through in situ polymerization, it was possible to effectively cover the ABS samples, produced via additive manufacturing. From the different times of exposure of the samples to the conducting polymer polypyrrole (PPy), the resulting material acquired good electrical performance for several applications. Concerning the influence of the oxidant on the overall response, the parts coated with ferric chloride (FeCl3) presented better electrical performance. The distribution of polypyrrole grains also proved to be more homogeneous for a longer coating process, as verified through the SEM analysis. From the contact angle test, it was possible to analyze the hydrophilic character of the regions coated with PPy for both oxidants, and it was also noted that the pieces that used APS as an oxidizer had a greater hydrophilic character. Regarding the mechanical properties of ABS parts (Yield Stress, Ultimate Tensile Strength, and Young's Modulus), they were not changed after coating with a conductive polymer, regardless of the oxidizer used. The maintenance of the mechanical properties of the parts is an important result of the study, as it represents a good compromise between the combination of electrical and mechanical properties. It was possible to confirm and reiterate the presence of polypyrrole in the coated samples through the FTIR test, the transmittance peaks detected for both oxidants were very close along the entire spectrum. Through the cyclic voltammetry (CV) assays, it was possible to verify that the electrolyte immersed in KOH 2.0M presented the best electrical performance in terms of the peak electrical current in association with the maintenance of mechanical properties, given the two oxidants used. As a consequence, due to its lower electrical contact resistance, the ABS/PPy (FeCl3) composite proved to be more promising for the possible application that needs a good electrical response while maintaining the material's mechanical properties.

5. Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Brazilian institutions UFPE, CNPq and FACEPE (Grants APQ- 0916-3.03/14). This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    21 July 2023
  • Date of issue
    2023

History

  • Received
    06 Dec 2022
  • Reviewed
    17 May 2023
  • Accepted
    19 June 2023
ABM, ABC, ABPol UFSCar - Dep. de Engenharia de Materiais, Rod. Washington Luiz, km 235, 13565-905 - São Carlos - SP- Brasil. Tel (55 16) 3351-9487 - São Carlos - SP - Brazil
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