Thermoplastic polymer composites and methods for preparing, collecting, and tempering 3D printable materials and articles from same

A 3D printing electrically conductive polymer composite filament, the composite filament comprising:

• one or more particulate thermoplastic polyesters selected from the group consisting of polylactic acid (PLA) polymers, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymers, and polycaprolactone (PCL) polymers in an amount of from about 65 to about 80% by weight of the composite filament;
• one or more electrically conductive components selected from the group consisting of carbon nanofibers, graphene nanoplatelets, and conductive metal nanoparticulates in an amount of from about 5 to about 20% by weight of the composite filament;
• one or more plasticizers in an amount of from about 0.1 to about 30% by weight of the composite filament;
• one or more thermal stabilizers in an amount of from about 0.05 to about 5% by weight of the composite filament;
• and
• one or more nanoscopic particulate fillers in an amount of from about 0.1 to about 10% by weight of the polymer composite filament;
• wherein the electrically conductive components, the plasticizers, the thermal stabilizers, and the nanoscopic particulate fillers are distributed in the composite filament resulting in a heat tempered degree of crystallization of 30% or greater;
• wherein the electrically conductive components are distributed substantially uniformly in the composite filament with resulting volumetric resistivity not greater than about 1 Ohm-cm to form an electrically conductive network within the composite filament for 3D printing electrically conductive architectures.