Optimization of Mechanical and Setting Properties in Acrylic Bone Cements Added with Graphene Oxide

The extended use of acrylic bone cements (ABC) in orthopedics presents some disadvantages related to the generation of high temperatures during methyl methacrylate polymerization, thermal tissue necrosis, and low mechanical properties. Both weaknesses cause an increase in costs for the health system and a decrease in the patient’s quality of life due to the prosthesis’s loosening. Materials such as graphene oxide (GO) have a reinforcing effect on ABC’s mechanical and setting properties. This article shows for the first time the interactions present between the factors sonication time and GO percentage in the liquid phase, together with the percentage of benzoyl peroxide (BPO) in the solid phase, on the mechanical and setting properties established for cements in the ISO 5833-02 standard. Optimization of the factors using a completely randomized experimental design with a factorial structure resulted in selecting nine combinations that presented an increase in compression, flexion, and the setting time and decreased the maximum temperature reached during the polymerization. All of these characteristics are desirable for improving the clinical performance of cement. Those containing 0.3 wt.% of GO were highlighted from the selected formulations because all the possible combinations of the studied factors generate desirable properties for the ABC.

EFFECT OF AZOINITIATORS OF METHYL METHACRYLATE POLYMERIZATION ON THE FORMATION PROCESS AND MORFOLOGY OF POLYURETHANE /POLYMETHYL METHACRYLATE INTERPENETRATING POLYMER NETWORKS

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) are mixtures of two cross-linked polymers formed as a result of chemical reactions of in situ synthesis of components from single-phase initial mixtures. As a rule, due to the incompatibility of the components, a physical process of phase separation takes place with the formation of heterogeneous systems with insignificant interphase adhesion, which can have a negative effect on the physicochemical properties. To increase the compatibility of the components and to stabilize the systems, compatibilizers are introduced into the reaction mixtures. In this work the kinetics of the in situ formation of the components of polyurethane/poly(methyl methacrylate) interpenetrating polymer networks and the phase separation induced by chemical reactions in the presence of methyl methacrylate polymerization oligoazoinitiators in the reaction mixture were studied. Oligoazoinitiators contained fragments of a polyurethane chain also. It has been shown that the introduction of oligoazoinitiators of various chemical natures can control the process of IPN formation due to the formation of block copolymers during synthesis, which are compatibilizers of the mixture. They slow down the phase separation process and favor the formation of a finer IPN structure.