Additive manufacturing of PEKK composites with selected Martian regolith particles for in-situ resource utilization
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Sustainable in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) requires materials and processes that minimize Earth dependency while enabling autonomous construction on Mars. This study investigates the fabrication and characterization of polyetherketoneketone (PEKK)/Martian Regolith Simulant (MRS) composite filaments optimized for additive manufacturing. By systematically reducing MRS particle size (<100 μm, <50 μm, and < 20 μm), the achievable filler loading in pulverized PEKK was progressively increased to 30 wt% without phase segregation. Filaments were produced using twin-screw extrusion and comprehensively characterized through rheological, thermal, and microstructural analyses prior to material extrusion (MEX) printing. Mechanical and thermomechanical testing of 3D-printed parts revealed that particle morphology and size distribution significantly influence porosity, interlayer adhesion, and anisotropy. SEM and EDX analyses confirmed uniform MRS dispersion and matrix infiltration into perforated silicate particles, facilitating enhanced strand fusion. At high filler contents, mechanical strength plateaued, indicating a transition in fracture mechanisms rather than continued degradation. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) demonstrated consistent elastic behavior between 0° and 90° orientations, while thermal post-processing enhanced thermal stability but introduced porosity, particularly at intermediate filler levels. A tensile strength model incorporating filler volume fraction, porosity, and fracture mode accurately predicted experimental results across compositions. These findings establish high-loading PEKK/MRS composites as a viable material system for sustainable, recyclable ISRU-based additive manufacturing on Mars. • Developed PEKK/MRS composite filaments with up to 30 wt% regolith for AM-ISRU. • Optimized MRS particle size to achieve uniform dispersion without solid-phase segregation. • Demonstrated anisotropic mechanical behavior with inter-strand reinforcement by MRS. • Thermal post-processing improved thermal stability but affected porosity evolution. • Proposed predictive tensile strength model integrating filler fraction and porosity effects.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".