Desenvolvimento de nanocompósitos de ABS/nanocargas carbonosas para confecção de peças com funcionalidade eletromagnética por manufatura aditiva

Abstract

To expand the applications of additive manufacturing, the development of new materials is required, particularly those exhibiting functional electromagnetic behavior for the electronics and defense industries. This work investigated the development of novel ternary nanocomposites based on acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) copolymer containing carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), and carbon black (CB). The materials were prepared using different mixing protocols, aiming at applications in components with electromagnetic functionality produced by fused filament fabrication (FFF). Initially, an experimental study was conducted to correlate the electromagnetic behavior and properties of the nanocomposites with the FFF process, supported by computational simulations. Subsequently, hybrid nanocomposites (binary and ternary systems) were prepared with different contents and types of carbon-based fillers via direct extrusion and via masterbatch, followed by dilution. The results indicated that the orientation of the filaments or deposited layers affects electromagnetic attenuation, with superior attenuation performance observed when alignment occurs with the applied electric field. Significant differences in electromagnetic behavior were observed depending on the mixing protocols, which were correlated with the morphological development resulting from each processing route. Nanocomposites prepared by direct extrusion exhibited the best properties, particularly the ternary formulations E-2/2/2 and E-3/3/3 (simultaneous addition of 2 wt.% and 3 wt.% of CNT, GNP, and CB, respectively), which achieved maximum total attenuations of 25 dB (12.4 GHz) and 42 dB (11.9 GHz). Rheological, mechanical, and thermal analyses confirmed the multifunctional viability of the materials and their suitability for FFF technology.