Mechanical and microwave absorbing properties of graphene/Mn–Zn ferrite/polylactic acid composites formed by fused deposition modeling.

3D printing technology is gaining widespread attention due to its powerful flexibility in material components and structure to design. In this paper, graphene (GR) and Mn–Zn ferrite (MZF) were filled into polylactic acid (PLA) as reinforcement. The GR-MZF/PLA composite wires were prepared by ball-mill mixing and melt extrusion method. Finally, the GR-MZF/PLA composites were prepared by fused deposition molding using the composite wires. The effects of the graphene content on the mechanical properties and wave absorption properties of the composites were investigated. With the increase in graphene content, the microwave absorption properties of the composites first enhance and then decrease. When the GR content is 4 wt.%, GR-MZF/PLA composite exhibits excellent microwave absorption performance. At the material thickness of 2.5 mm, the maximum reflection loss is −24.3 dB and the absorption bandwidth is 5.12 GHz, and good mechanical property is achieved with a tensile strength of 34.4 MPa. The results show that the GR-MZF/PLA composites prepared by the method described in this paper have good microwave absorption properties and load-bearing capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]