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.