Investigations of polylactic acid reinforced composite feedstock filaments for multimaterial three-dimensional printing applications

This paper reports properties of four different filaments prepared from (i) virgin polylactic acid, (ii) polylactic acid reinforced with polyvinyl chloride, (iii) polylactic acid reinforced with wood powder, and (iv) polylactic acid with reinforcement of Fe₃O₄ prepared with twin-screw extrusion for possible multimaterial three-dimensional printing. The results suggest that the melt flow rate of composite increases with the increase in reinforcements except for wood powder, which has shown a negative trend. Mechanical properties were also reduced with the loading but with the increase in the Fe₃O₄ content, these properties were improved. It has been observed that with reinforcement of polyvinyl chloride from 10 wt% to 25 wt% peak elongation and break elongation were reduced by 47.61% and 50%, respectively. Further, thermal analysis suggests that all samples were stable but for reinforced samples, the integral energy has decreased significantly in successive cycles. The vibration sample magnetometery of samples suggested that magnetic properties were dependent on the content of Fe₃O₄ present in the composite.