3D Printed Materials with Electrical Properties Tailored for Thermal Management

FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D-printed parts, based on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), are manufactured to obtain different multi-scale configurations of the internal conductive pathways. By appropriately selecting materials and printing parameters, it is possible to align MWCNTs along the printing direction, leading to an increase of electrical conductivity from 6.88  × 10⁻² S/m before printing to 1.19 × 10¹ S/m of a single printed filament. Consequently, the conductive network arrangement through the sample justifies the higher electrical conductivity parallel to the printing direction (1.22 S/m) than its value perpendicularly measured (7.34 × 10⁻² S/m) in 3D-printed samples. This approach, together with a suitable choice of the electrical contact position, allows controlling the flow of the electrical current, conferring parts the ability to heat up when subjected to an electrical source selectively. This energy-saving strategy can be advantageously applied to print quickly, in a single step, electronic devices, thermistors capable of converting electrical energy into thermal energy, heat exchangers, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI) shielding.