Rheological,mechanical,thermal,tribological and morphological properties of PLA-PEKK-HAp-CS composite

The present study reports investigations on rheological,mechanical,thermal,tribological and morphological properties of feedstock filaments prepared with polylactic acid-polyether ketone ketone-hydroxyapatite-chitosan(PLA-PEKK-HAp-CS)composite for 3D printing of functional prototypes.The study consists of a series of melt processing operations on melt flow index(MFI)setup as per ASTM D-1238 for melt flow certainty followed by fixation of reinforcement composition/proportion as 94%PEKK-4%HAp-2%CS(B)by mass in PLA matrix(A).The blending of reinforcement and preparation of feedstock filament for fused deposition modeling(FDM)set up has been performed on commercial twin screw extruder(TSE).The results of study suggest that feedstock filaments prepared with blend of 95%A-5%B(by mass)at 200℃processing temperature and 100 r/min rotational speed on TSE resulted into better tensile properties(35.9 MPa peak strength and 32.3 MPa break strength)with 6.24%surface porosity,42.67 nm surface roughness(R_(a))and acceptable heat capacity(2.14 J/g).However as regards to tribological behavior,the minimum wear of 316μm was observed for sample with poor tensile properties.As regards to crash application for scaffolds the maximum toughness of 1.16 MPa was observed for 85%A-15%B(by mass)at 200℃processing temperature and 150 r/min rotational speed on TSE.