Abstract:
This disclosure describes a composition for additive manufacturing, which contains a thermoplastic polymer and a mineral additive capable of reducing a specific heat of the composition relative to a specific heat of the thermoplastic polymer, A proportion of the mineral additive in the composition may be set such that the specific heat of the composition is equal to or less than 95% of the specific heat of the thermoplastic polymer, and the composition may be in the form of a filament, rod, pellet or granule. Compositions disclosed herein may be adapted to function as compositions suitable for performing additive manufacturing by material extrusion. Also disclosed herein are additive manufacturing processes and methods for producing the compositions for fused filament fabrication.
Abstract:
This disclosure describes processes for producing polymer foams, and compositions of matter relating to these processes. A process includes the steps of dispersing an organic nucleating agent in a dispersing medium to obtain an additive dispersion, contacting the additive dispersion with a mineral nucleating agent to obtain a hybrid nucleating agent containing the organic nucleating agent localized on at least a portion of a surface of the mineral nucleating agent, and contacting the hybrid nucleating agent with a polymer in the presence of a foaming agent to obtain a polymer foam. A foamed polymer of the present disclosure includes a cellular matrix containing a polymer material, and a mineral matrix of particles containing a hybrid nucleating agent dispersed in the cellular matrix, in which the hybrid nucleating agent contains an organic nucleating agent localized on at least a portion of a surface of an inorganic material.