Surface modification of polyamide by SWCNTs for application in SLS 3D printing

The development of approaches to the creation of new materials with functional properties is one of the main directions for progress of their application in various fields. This work proposes an approach to surface modification of polyamide-12 (PA) powder with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to impart electrical conductivity and create a material suitable for selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing. A previously unknown transition in the conductivity character change with increasing SWCNTs content on the surface of polymer powder particles, demonstrating a change in the state of the electrically conductive network from quasi-planar to spatial, was discovered. The main parameters of the resulting powders were also studied, which determine the possibility of their use for the SLS method: flowability, compactability, transmittance and morphology. As a result, a simple method of new materials obtaining based on PA/SWCNTs with high electrical conductivity was proposed, which are suitable for application in 3D printing.