Substrate Coating Produced via Additive Manufacturing with Conducting Polymers: Assessment in The Development of Electrodes

The production of conductive and organic devices from a 3D printer represents a promising strategy for several areas. In particular, the synthesis of polypyrrole-coated acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites can be considered an important step to produce conductive supports for 3D printing. Herein, it is reported the production of ABS samples through the additive manufacturing process (3D printing) accordingly to the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method. The hydrophilic behavior was controlled by the surface treatment using air plasma for the following step of coating with polypyrrole (PPy) via an in situ polymerization, using two different oxidants: ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) and ammonium persulfate (APS). The chemical, optical, surface, and electrical properties of these materials were characterized through Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle measurements, cyclic voltammetry, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), 4-probe electrical measurement, and mechanical tensile testing. The ABS/PPy (FeCl3) composite exhibited a low electrical contact resistance and better performance for applications that require electrodes with a good conductance level.