Piezoresistive Properties of 3D-Printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) Nanocomposites

An increasing interest is focused on the application of 3D printing for sensor manufacturing. Using 3D printing technology offers a new approach to the fabrication of sensors that are both geometrically and functionally complex. This work presents the analysis of the 3D-printed thermoplastic nanocomposites compress under the applied force. The response for the corresponding resistance changes versus applied load is obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of the printed layer as a pressure/force sensor. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) and high-structured carbon black (Ketjenblack) (KB) in the polylactic acid (PLA) matrix were extruded to develop 3D-printable filaments. The electrical and piezoresistive behaviors of the created 3D-printed layers were investigated. The percolation threshold of MWNT and KB 3D-printed layers are 1 wt.% and 4 wt.%, respectively. The PLA/1 wt.% MWNT 3D-printed layers with 1 mm thickness exhibit a negative pressure coefficient (NPC) characterized by a decrease of about one decade in resistance with increasing compressive loadings up to 18 N with a maximum strain up to about 16%. In the cyclic mode with a 1 N/min force rate, the PLA/1 wt.% MWNT 3D-printed layers showed good performance with the piezoresistive coefficient or gauge factor (G) of 7.6 obtained with the amplitude of the piezoresistive response (A(r)) of about -0.8. KB composites could not show stable piezoresistive responses in a cyclic mode. However, under high force rate compression, the PLA/4 wt.% KB 3D-printed layers led to responses of large sensitivity (A(r) = −0.90) and were exempt from noise with a high value of G = 47.6 in the first cycle, which is a highly efficient piezoresistive behavior.