Achieving green and ultra-strong bonding between metals and polymers through additive manufacturing

Lightweight metal-polymer composite materials are promising solutions for reducing pollutant emissions in the fields of automotive and aerospace etc. However, their widespread application was largely dependent on the bond strength between metal and polymer. In this work, titanium alloy-polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composite components were formed using injection molding. To facilitate the metal-polymer bonding, cylindrical protrusions were grown on the surface titanium alloy by means of additive manufacturing, selective laser melting. The results showed that the spacing between cylindrical protrusions remarkably influence the bond strength of titanium alloy-PPS composite components. At a spacing of 600 μm, the composite components exhibited the maximum bond strength of 37.82MPa. Moreover, the bond strength could still maintain at 10.77MPa, even at an elevated temperature of 200 °C. After annealing treatment, the bond strength slightly decreased. The composite components formed with various types of polymers exhibited high bond strength, demonstrating good applicability.