Investigation of the effect of nano powder additives on mechanical and physical properties of composites produced by stereolithography

Nanocomposites represent a new field in materials science and provide a combination of properties that revolutionize materials development. This study focuses on the development of nanocomposites by combining multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), titanium nitride (TiN) and cubic boron nitride (c-BN) nanopowders with photo-polymer epoxy resin. The motivation behind this research is to investigate the potential applications of these nanocomposites in additive manufacturing using Stereolithography (SLA) technology. The experimental approach includes a series of laboratory tests to evaluate the mechanical and thermal properties of the developed nanocomposites. Initially, MWCNT, TiN and c-BN nanopowders were carefully mixed with photopolymer epoxy resin to ensure homogeneity. Then, this composite mixture was prepared for use in the SLA additive manufacturing process. The use of the SLA technique served to evaluate the production capability and quality of the nanocomposites. The results of the study are in line with previous research in this field, confirming the improved mechanical and thermal properties of the developed nanocomposites. In particular, the incorporation of MWCNT resulted in increases in electrical conductivity as well as a 24.21% increase in thermal conductivity. In addition, the incorporation of c-BN resulted in significant mechanical property improvements, leading to a 20.45% increase in hardness. These findings highlight the development capabilities of nanocomposites in the electronics, aerospace, automotive, construction, medical devices and manufacturing sectors. This study underlines the important future of nanocomposites in modern manufacturing technologies. The nanocomposites synthesized by exploiting the different properties of MWCNT, TiN and c-BN nanopowders exhibit improved mechanical and thermal properties. c-BN increased the hardness from 88.53 to 106.64 compared to pure resin, while MWCNT increased the thermal conductivity from 0.19 to 0.236. The findings not only confirm the effectiveness of the SLA technique in nanocomposite fabrication, but also highlight the significant contributions of nanotechnology to materials science and engineering.