Mechanical and piezoresistive behavior of selectively laser sintered MWCNT/UHMWPE nanocomposites

Herein, we present the mechanical and piezoresistive behavior of MWCNT/UHMWPE nanocomposites processed via selective laser sintering (SLS) under tensile, flexural cyclic loadings. We show that uniform dispersion MWCNTs in UHMWPE enhances crystallinity (+10% for 0.5 wt% MWCNT) decreases porosity (as evidenced by μCT images), evincing lowest (∼1%) highest tensile strength 20.3 MPa which is ∼ 45% higher than maximum extant SLS UHMWPE-based composites. The nanocomposite also exhibits superior characteristics, showing a sensitivity factor (in tension) 0.6 2.6 elastic inelastic regime, respectively. Furthermore, 2D-hexagonal lattices with relative density 50% reveal linear response gauge 1 consistent stable strain sensing capability over 100 repeated load cycles. results demonstrate potential development smart biomedical devices.