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I am doing laboratory experiments and need to print some components.

I am working with different aqueous (water) solutions containing sulphuric acid (H2SO4), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), separately and in combination. The pH of the solutions are in the range 0 to 7. Temperatures don't exceed 40° Celsius.

In another application we have aqueous solutions containing high concentrations of FeCl3, HCl and in some cases H2O2 at temperatures of up to 180° Celsius.

Which 3D printing filament materials can you recommend for these applications?

Trish
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Johan Zietsman
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  • Why are you looking for filament materials? You can print with liquids and gels. – Davo Apr 17 '17 at 13:17
  • for 180 you may consider a silicon mould using caulk silicon as in YT guide and make copies using resin epoxies same stuff as circuit boards that go to 250. highest plastics are usable at about 230, peek-tm is cnc'd it is at 280 max. – LifeInTheTrees Apr 18 '17 at 03:51
  • @Davo: The printer that I am using uses filament materials. – Johan Zietsman May 02 '17 at 19:37

2 Answers2

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There are two issues you have here, one is temperature stability and the other is chemical reactivity of plastics. I can't help you with the chemistry side, but I can help with the temperature.

Application 1 (Temp < 40 °C)

Any FDM plastic will perform reasonably well under these temperatures. I would suggest trying a Nylon, PETG or a PolyCarbonate filament as I know these are more resistant to acids than PLA or ABS. As far as strength of the parts, all FDM plastics will work well

Application 2 (Temp > 180 °C)

This temperature range is above the glass transition temperature of the PLA, ABS, PETG and Nylon are all well below 180 °C and therefore aren't worth considering. Your best option is PolyCarbonate, or PolyCarbonate-ABS which are both fairly high (roughly 140-150 °C). However, are both below your minimum temperature threshold.

My conclusion is to try a polycarbonate sample and see how it reacts to the chemicals you're working with, though it doesn't look hopeful.

For Chemical reactivity, I did some Google-fu and found a few links that look helpful for PolyCarbonate:

Community
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Diesel
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    A "glass transition temperature" only applies to cross-linked resins (like epoxy, many acrylics...). Printed plastics are almost always linear and not cross linked (non cross linked can melt, cross linked cannot). – Dan S Apr 17 '17 at 12:20
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    standard aliphatic resins like polyethylene, polybutylene, and substituted one like Teflon or PVC should be resistant to attack (but the last two are unlikely to be printable) check the melt temperatures. – Dan S Apr 17 '17 at 12:24
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    Admittedly this is not my area of expertise, however, using Matweb (my goto for material properties), all plastics I mentioned have rated Glass Transition temperatures, cross-linked or not. As I understand it, Tg is defined by the temperature where the molecular chains are able to slide past each other. Above which the room temperature Younges modulus would no longer be valid. The Melting temperature is the point at which the material changes phase from solid to pure liquid (in steady state), at which point you'd be concerned about fluid mechanics not solid mechanics. – Diesel Apr 17 '17 at 13:08
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    You have a good point. Non cross linked polymers will likely deform after the glass transition temperature. Cross-linked ones will just become slightly weaker. On the molecular scale, with cross-linked resins the chains can't slide past each other freely, "long scale segmental motion" is possible but free translation is unlikely. – Dan S Apr 17 '17 at 18:56
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    @DanS for 3D printing, TG is pretty much the start where the model will start to deform under stress and the absolute maximum operation temperature for bearing stress. – Trish Aug 17 '18 at 14:14
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Polyoxymethylene (POM) filament (known as Delrin or acetal) is suited to applications involving chemicals: it is chemically resistant to solvents, hydrocarbons, and neutral chemicals.

FarO
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