3D Printing of Smart PETG Blends with Thermal Stimulation

Smart materials can react to environmental changes like living organisms and adapt themselves to environmental conditions and changes such as changes in temperature, electric current, magnetic field, light, humidity, etc. Using 3D printing to process smart materials is a new approach known as 4D printing. In this research, processing, manufacturing and 3D printing of PETG-ABS in three weight percentages of 70/30, 50/50 and 30/70 were done. The results of SEM also confirmed the compatibility of these two polymers. In all PETG-ABS mixtures, a combination of sea-island and drop-matrix morphology was observed, and for the 30/70 and 30/70 blends, phase droplets dispersed in the matrix were clearly observed. The results of mechanical properties also showed that as the percentage of ABS in the mixture increases, the tensile strength increases and the elongation decreases. The results obtained from the shape memory test indicate the existence of the ability to program the shape memory property in 4D printing mixtures. As expected, the increase in the weight percentage of ABS was associated with the disorder in the recovery of the mixtures, so the mixture with 70% by weight of PETG and 30% by weight of ABS showed the most favorable shape memory properties.