From Waste to Filament: Development of Biomass-Derived Activated Carbon-Reinforced PETG Composites for Sustainable 3D Printing

Abstract

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing not only offers numerous advantages over traditional manufacturing methods but also produces a significant amount of waste in the form of failed prints, support structures, and unused filaments. Thus, there is a need to develop novel and sustainable materials to replace conventional FDM filaments. We report a unique biomass (waste leaves)-derived activated carbon that can be infused with polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) to fabricate a sustainable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly class of 3D printing filaments that enable 3D printing of parts with superior mechanical properties. We investigate the key parameters that influence the chemical, morphological, thermal, surface, and mechanical properties of our biomass-derived hydrochar, activated carbon, and PETG composite filaments. The resulting samples are characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscope, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, contact angle meter, and a universal testing machine. We have observed that while hydrochar can be incorporated with PETG to create biomass-derived filaments, incorporating activated carbon with PETG results in superior filaments. These composites can incorporate an extremely high biomass filler weight percentage while enhancing mechanical strength by over 30%. Our biomass-derived PETG composites were also thermally stable and more hydrophilic than the pure PETG samples. We analyze the mechanism by which activated carbon incorporation increases the PETG composites’ mechanical strength with both physical and chemical techniques. We also demonstrate successful FDM 3D printing of personalized anatomical models and porous cylindrical filter mesh using our biomass-derived PETG composite filaments. Implementing such sustainable principles in the 3D printing industry has the potential to transform it into a restorative and sustainable system while simultaneously minimizing environmental pollution and waste.