Rapid Prototyping of Efficient Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Polymer Composites via Fused Deposition Modeling  
[PERSON] 1  
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina--UFSC, Florianopolis 88040-900, SC, Brazil; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (L.G.E. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.P.S. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (G.M.d.O.B.) [PERSON] 2  
2 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Trento 38123, Italy; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.D. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (L.F.)  
[PERSON] 1  
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina--UFSC, Florianopolis 88040-900, SC, Brazil; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (L.G.E. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.P.S. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (G.M.d.O.B.) 2 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Trento 38123, Italy; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.D. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (L.F.)  
3 Department of Metallurgic and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941-909, RJ, Brazil; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (B.G.S.) 4 Correspondence: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]; Tel. : +39-0461-282  
telecommunications technologies, EMI has become a major concern [2]. In Europe, a directive destined to the electrical and electronic engineering industries regulating the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) was released in 2014. The aim is to assure that electro-electronic apparatuses do not cause, or are not affected by EMI [3]. Consequently, there is the need to develop effective and practical EMI shielding materials specifically designed for such applications [4]. In recent years, considerable research efforts have been conducted for the development of novel electrically conductive polymer composites with enhanced EMI shielding efficiency. When compared to traditional metallic materials, polymer composites have the advantage of lightness, ease of processing/shaping, and of not suffering from corrosion processes. Various polymer composite formulations, i.e., different filler types and polymer matrixes, as well as mechanisms towards electromagnetic attenuation have been recently reviewed [5; 6; 7; 8]. The most common processing routes for the development of electrically conductive polymer composites for EMI shielding applications are solvent casting [9; 10; 11; 12] and melt-mixing followed by compression-molding [13; 14; 15; 16]. Nevertheless, solvent casting remains limited to lab-scale. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to shape polymer composites into complex forms via solvent casting or compression molding. Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have opened new possibilities for rapid prototyping of electrically conductive polymer composites for EMI shielding [17]. The so-called fused deposition modeling appears as an emerging technology that is considered as one of the most common techniques for rapid prototyping of polymeric components. In fused deposition modeling (FDM), 3D manufactured components are grown layer-by-layer from polymeric filaments [18; 19]. On the other hand, obtaining extruded filaments of electrically conductive polymer composites suitable for FDM is not a simple task. In fact, modifications of the rheological behavior due to the addition of fillers may complicate the extrusion process of the filaments and the subsequent FDM step [19]. Nevertheless, the successful preparation of electrically conductive filaments filled with carbon nanotubes (CNT) and their use for producing electrically conductive samples by FDM has been recently reported [20]. In this manuscript, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer filled with graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) or multi-walled CNT at a fixed weight fraction of 6 wt.% was extruded in filaments and rapid prototyped via fused deposition modeling. It is important to notice that the concentration of 6 wt.% was carefully chosen based on previous studies [20; 21].