Florentin Tischer

Near‐infrared laser sources have the potential to change the process dynamics in laser powder bed fusion of polymers. To take full advantage of the shorter processing laser wavelength, the addition of absorbing additives, such as carbon black nanoparticles, becomes inevitable. Many nanoparticle characteristics can influence the laser‐material interaction, such as quantity, dispersion, and position relative to the polymer matrix, but have not been investigated under processing conditions. Therefore, this study improves the understanding of the optical material properties present in laser powder bed fusion by quantifying the thermo‐optical properties of PA11 powder, melt and solid, additivated with minute amounts of carbon black nanoparticles on the surface and throughout the volume of the particles. Surface‐additivation results in the highest increase in laser attenuation overall and creates a segregated network that acts as a barrier to laser penetration in the molten and solid state. By contrast, the random distribution of agglomerated nanoparticles throughout the particle volume allows most of the laser radiation to pass through. Other nanoparticle effects, such as thermal stabilization and crystal formation, affect the volume‐additivated particles the most. The thermo‐optical results are complemented by analysis of process‐relevant powder, thermal, structural, and compositional material properties.

In KONA 2022, the fundamentals of two- and multidimensional particle size distributions were introduced. The next question in the field of two- and multidimensional distributions addresses their application to describe a particle process, e.g., agglomeration or separation. A multidimensional separation can be seen as retrieving only particles with a specific set of properties from a multidimensionally distributed system, e.g., retrieving only small particles (below a certain threshold in size) with a compact spherical shape (above a certain threshold in sphericity). The multidimensional separation allows the generation of functional particle systems with specific properties, e.g., semiconducting, optical, or electronic properties, which are required for high-technology applications. Starting from so-called particle-discrete information, i.e., an information vector for each particle containing its compositional, geometrical, and physical properties, it is possible to describe a multidimensional separation in full detail based on various properties. Each particle can be evaluated according to different separation properties, e.g., size, shape, and material composition. With this database, it is possible to define and work with separation functions to describe the multidimensional separation and quantify the separation results. For example, in the two-dimensional case, the median cut size becomes a median cut line, where the probability for a particle to belong to the concentrate is 0.5. Some case studies and examples show different approaches and possibilities to achieve a multidimensional separation in one or several connected process steps.

Enzymatic recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is an innovative and environmentally friendly way to promote a circular plastics economy and reduce the use of petroleum-based plastic monomers. Despite, or rather because of the large number of natural and engineered enzymes discovered in recent years, there are substantial difficulties in comparing PET degradation rates between studies. The present study therefore gathered knowledge about potential pitfalls and the question of how benchmarking for enzymatic PET degradation should be performed. Since there is no progress to establish a well-defined standard substrate as well as uniform reaction conditions for comparative studies of PET hydrolases, we propose to carry a well-characterized enzyme as a reference in all studies. In this way, variants of the leaf branch compost cutinase (LCC) were benchmarked in miniaturized stirred tank reactors. Different mutants with amino acid exchanges inspired by natural or engineered PET hydrolases were compared. The best enzyme resulted from a combination of mutations contained in the ICCG variant of the LCC and the so-called DuraPETase. The product release rate of the resulting variant ICCG_DAQI was 27% higher than the reference enzyme ICCG. Although the relative performance of the different enzymes seemed to be independent of the PET material used (bottles, textile fibres), the absolute degradation rates were strongly influenced by the substrate properties. In particular, compared to bottle PET, post-industrial textile fibres were efficiently degraded releasing 40 mg terephthalic acid per hour and mg_enzyme, resulting in complete degradation within less than 24 hours.

The increasing complexity in particle science and technology requires the ability to deal with multidimensional property distributions. We present the theoretical background for multidimensional fractionations by transferring the concepts known from one dimensional to higher dimensional separations. Particles in fluids are separated by acting forces or velocities, which are commonly induces by external fields, e.g., gravitational, centrifugal or electro-magnetic fields. In addition, short-range force fields induced by particle interactions can be employed for fractionation. In this special case, nanoparticle chromatography is a recent example. The framework for handling and characterizing multidimensional separation processes acting on multidimensional particle size distributions is presented. Illustrative examples for technical realizations are given for shape-selective separation in a hydrocyclone and for density-selective separation in a disc separator.

Charge control substances (CCS) as additives for polymer powders are investigated to make polymer powders suitable for the electrophotographic powder deposition in powder-based additive manufacturing. The use of CCS unifies the occurring charge of a powder, which is crucial for this novel deposition method. Therefore, commercially available polymer powder is functionalized via dry coating in a shaker mixer with two different CCS and analyzed afterwards. The flowability and the degree of coverage of additives on the surface are used to evaluate the coating process. The thermal properties are analyzed by use of differential scanning calorimetry. Most important, the influence of the CCS on the powder charge is shown by measurements of the electrostatic surface potential at first and the powder deposition itself is performed and analyzed with selected formulations afterwards to show the potential of this method. Finally, tensile strength specimens are produced with the conventional deposition method in order to show the usability of the CCS for current machines.

Within this contribution, the effect of grinding media wear on the melt crystallisation of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) is addressed. PBT was wet ground in a stirred media mill in ethanol using different grinding media beads (silica, chrome steel, cerium-stabilised and yttrium-stabilised zirconia) at comparable stress energies with the intention to use the obtained particles as feed materials for the production of feedstocks for laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (PBF-AM). In PBF‑AM, the feedstock’s optical, rheological and especially thermal properties—including melt crystallisation kinetics—strongly influence the processability and properties of the manufactured parts. The influence of process parameters and used grinding media during wet comminution on the optical properties, crystal structure, molar mass distribution, inorganic content (wear) and thermal properties of the obtained powders is discussed. A grinding media-dependent acceleration of the melt crystallisation could be attributed to wear particles serving as nuclei for heterogeneous crystallisation. Yttrium-stabilised zirconia grinding beads proved to be the most suitable for the production of polymer powders for the PBF process in terms of (fast) comminution kinetics, unchanged optical properties and the least accelerated crystallisation kinetics.