Fabrication of Flexible and Biodegradable Poly(butylene adipate- co -terephthalate) Parts via Powder Optimization and Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Abstract

Flexible biodegradable polymers such as poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) are promising feedstock materials for sustainable laser-based powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. This study evaluated the feasibility of large-scale preparation of near-spherical PBAT powder through a melt emulsification method. A novel post-treatment strategy comprising ethanol washing and thermal annealing was proposed to optimize the processability of PBAT powder that originally displayed unfavorable broad melting behavior. The parts obtained from the optimized PBAT powder exhibited a high tensile elongation at break of 471 ± 13% and a low Shore hardness of 64 ± 3 A. Microstructural analysis suggested that the high ductility of the parts was closely related to the ability of the optimized PBAT powder to withstand higher bed temperatures and thus fuse better. These findings establish a viable route for converting intrinsically challenging biodegradable polymers into high-performance powder feedstocks, offering a cleaner and more sustainable material paradigm for additive manufacturing of soft components.