Mechanical characterisation of PMMA/SWNTs bone cement using nanoindenter.

Arun, S.; Rama Sreekanth, P. S.; Kanagaraj, S.

The usage of cemented fixation for total hip replacement still exists for older people and patients having voids and irregular femurs. However, the huge difference between the mechanical properties of the cortical bone and bone cement led to inhomogeneous stress transfer in the stem/cement interface. Hence, an attempt was made in this direction to sort out the above mentioned problem by reinforcing the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement with single walled nanotubes (SWNTs). The SWNTs were functionalised with alkaline treatment, and the attachment of sodium ethoxide was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Later, the polymerisation was done along with the reinforcement of SWNTs, and the mechanical properties were evaluated using the nanoindenter. It is observed that the Young's modulus and hardness of PMMA were found to be enhanced by 19 and 36% respectively at an optimum concentration of 0·15 wt-% SWNTs. It is concluded that the reinforcement of PMMA by SWNTs significantly increased the mechanical properties, which may be explored for the effective stress transfer in the stem/bone interface.

ACRYLATES; NANOTUBES; BONE cements; NANOCOMPOSITE materials; FOURIER transform infrared spectroscopy

Materials Technology, 2014, Vol 29, Issue B1, pB4

1066-7857

Academic Journal

10.1179/1753555713Y.0000000111