Correlation between the electrical and thermal conductivity of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene composites with carbonaceous fillers with different dimensionality

Abstract Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer has received considerable attention due to its high versatility for applications, including additive manufacturing. However, its electrical and thermal transport properties limit its application potential. One route to enhance electrical and thermal conductivities is the development of ABS‐based composites by using carbonaceous fillers, which have exceptional mechanical properties and remarkable functional properties. Here, we testing the presence of carbonaceous fillers with different dimensionalities on the electrical and thermal conductivity of ABS composites. In particular, one dimensional (1D) carbon nanotubes (CNT), two dimensional (2D) reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and three dimensional (3D) carbon black (CB) have been used to develop ABS‐based composites with different filler contents. A similar trend exist for the electrical and thermal conductivity results, where the highest conductivity values (electrical conductivity 0.0305 S·cm ⁻¹ and thermal conductivity 0.56 W·mK ⁻¹ ) being achieved for ABS‐based composites with 2D rGO filler, highlighting the relevance of specific characteristics of the 2D type filler. In addition, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) of the ABS‐based composites containing rGO was superior to other 1D and 3D fillers. The stated correlation between electrical and thermal properties and their dependence on carbonaceous filler dimensionality are essential to be taken into account for properly tailoring functional properties of ABS‐based composites. Highlights Carbonaceous fillers are used to tailor several properties of ABS composites Significant differences are established between filler type or content Electrical percolation threshold strongly depends on the dimensionally 2D rGO more effective to improve electrical/thermal conductivities 1D CNT and 2D rGO fillers exhibit best EMI shielding properties