The pace of development of modern technology is accelerating, reaching the limits of the capacity of existing materials. As development continues, there is a need to create new materials, capable of delivering new and better properties. It is difficult to produce new applications using conventional techniques, which is why 3D printing of materials is becoming more and more interesting. With the correct use of 3D printers and the suitable materials, the possibility of producing a wide variety of products is opening up. Metals are widely used for high-conductivity applications, but they are often not compatible with 3D techniques, therefore high-conductivity polymer composites are becoming increasingly popular. These materials metals or carbon nanomaterials are used as fillers. Since carbon nanomaterials currently do not yet achieve the desired conductivities, metal fillers based on silver and copper are being used more extensively.
In the Master thesis, we have first reviewed 3D printing techniques and selected the suitable polymers and fillers. In the theoretical part, we studied different fillers that can be used to produce highly conductive polymer composites. We took a closer look at the manufacture of silver-coated copper fillers and their advantages over other fillers. In the practical part, a highly conductive polymer composite was produced. We used low density polyethylene (LDPE) as the polymer matrix and copper particles, coated with 10% silver, as a filler. The filaments with different ratios of the filler were prepared by using extruder. During the extrusion process, we followed process variables that enabled the control of the manufacturing of the composite. The materials were further analysed by nanoindentation, thermal and rheological tests. The obtained physical properties of the composites were compared and it was found that changes in the behaviour of the composites occur between 10 and 20% of the filler. In the manufacture of composite filaments, defects and surface flaking start to occur after 20% of the filler. We also evaluated the optimum amount of filler that would offer the best properties of a Cu10Ag-added high-conductivity polymer composite. Rheological tests enabled the determination of the rheological or geometric percolation threshold at 14.8% filler content, which gives us the ideal amount of filler in the composite and confirms the observed changes in the behaviour of the composite between 10 and 20% fill.
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