A microscopy study of nanoparticles emitted during laser additive manufacturing with stainless steel powder

This article considers the nanoparticles suspended in the gas phase in the vicinity of a 3D-printed surface during additive manufacturing via Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (LB-PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED). The results of this research show that the primary pollutants during the laser additive manufacturing using metal powder are aggregated core-shell nanoparticles with an average particle size of about 10 nm. High-resolution microscopy shows the chemical composition of the volume and surface of each particle; in particular, the "core" consists of Fe, Cr, and Ni atoms and the "shell" is a thin oxide layer.