3D Printed Polylactic Acid - Hemp Fiber Composites: Mechanical, Thermal, and Microcomputed Tomography Data

Hemp fiber was used untreated and treated with sodium hydroxide or (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) as an additive in polylactic acid (PLA) for fused filament fabrication (FFF) of tensile test specimens. Composites granules were produced by solvent processing with 10 wt. % of hemp fiber to use as feedstock for the extrusion of filaments compatible with commercial FFF printers. The dataset shows the thermal properties of the various composites, which were used to determine the appropriate temperatures required for extrusion of filaments and FFF printer settings. Microcomputed tomography imaging was performed and tensile mechanical properties of FFF-printed tensile test specimens were determined as a function of hemp fiber surface treatment. The data provides an assessment of the use of minimally processed hemp fiber as a filler or mechanical enhancer of thermoplastic materials for additive manufacturing. The database is organized into five folders. The folder "Digital Camera Images" contains a JPEG image of the hemp fiber used for this dataset. "DSC" contains a .xlsx file containing the DSC data for each granule produced. "Microcomputed Tomography" contains two zip files containing .tiff files of the tomography images of a FFF printed APTES-treated hemp - PLA tensile specimen in 8bit and 16bit formats. A .mp4 movie of the 3D volume is also included in this folder. Six optical microscope images taken at 40X magnification in .jpg format and a .xlsx file of 100 hemp diameter measurements are within the folder "Optical Microscopy". The folder "Tensile Mechanical Data" contains a .xlsx file with the tensile mechanical data for each of the FFF-printed tensile test specimens produced