Single-Particle ICP-TOFMS Analysis of Aerosol Particulate Matter Released by Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printers

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is rapidly growing in popularity. This growth brings increased interest in studying the byproducts released during 3D printing. In this work, we present a new method to collect and analyze the metal composition of individual particles released during the operation of fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers using single-particle inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry (spICP-TOFMS). The presented method uses a positive-pressure sampling chamber and membrane filters to collect the emitted particles. Particles are then extracted into water, and suspensions are analyzed by spICP-TOFMS. We study common filaments used for fused deposition modeling, including acylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA), and a specialty filament with stainless-steel particles embedded into the polymer. Using our sampling and extraction procedure, we measured over 1000 particles for each filament type. Critical masses for our measurements are as low as 0.03 fg. The most common measurable metals in the FDM-generated particles are Al, Ti, Fe, and Zr. Single-metal Fe particles make up over 50% of the thermoplastic particle population. We also identify multimetal associations in particles unique to each thermoplastic filament type. Using a stainless-steel-embedded polymer, we measure FeCr particles that are characteristic of the filament composition, with Fe:Cr mass ratios ranging from 4.4 to 3.6. Based on these particle compositions, we demonstrate that metal stainless-steel aerosols are released during the printing of the particle-embedded filament.