Material Extrusion Printing of Poly(Acrylonitrile-Styrene-Acrylate) and Poly(Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) Structures Reinforced with Poly(Phenylene Oxide) Additives for Improved Thermomechanical Properties and their Surface Analysis by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Fused filament fabrication offers the ability to 3D print complex geometries made from plastic filament materials; however, these parts are mechanically outperformed by parts created by traditional fabrication methods. To overcome this challenge, a high-performance polymer poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) is incorporated as an additive into two common engineering thermoplastics, poly(acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate) (ASA) and poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS). Structures printed from these polymer blends are more mechanically robust compared to those prepared from the parent polymers, with low loading levels (1–5 wt%) of PPO improving the elastic strength by up to ≈30% relative to the parent terpolymers. Even at higher loading levels (10 and 20 wt% PPO), there is no evidence of additive aggregation in the model thin films, which is supported by compositional analysis of the copolymers and chemical analysis via time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The enhancements in mechanical properties of ASA and ABS blends appear to be a consequence of homogeneous incorporation of the PPO additive. This work explores expanding materials-property space using miscible blends of engineering thermoplastics to improve mechanical performance as a general approach to overcoming challenges with parts created by melt-based material extrusion printing.