Improving bone cement toughness and contrast agent confinement by using acrylic branched polymers

MIRTA L. FASCIO; LISSARRAGUE, MARIA HAYDEE; D´ACCORSO, NORMA B.; GOYANES, SILVIA

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING. C, BIOMIMETIC MATERIALS, SENSORS AND SYSTEMS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 59 p. 901 - 908

0928-4931

A new biomedical material to be used as part of acrylic bone cement formulations is described. This new materialis tough, its Young´s Modulus is similar to the one of poly (methylmethacrylate) and the contrast agent, usuallyemployed in acrylic bone cements, is homogeneously distributed among the polymeric matrix. Additionally, itswear coefficient is 66% lower than the one measured in poly(methyl methacrylate). The developed material isa branched polymer with polyisoprene backbone and poly(methyl methacrylate) side chains, which are capableof retaining bariumsulphate nanoparticles thus avoiding their aggregation. The grafting reactionwas carried outin presence of the nanoparticles, using methyl methacrylate as solvent. From the 1H-NMR spectra itwas possibleto determine the average number of MMA units per unit of isoprene (3.75:1). The ability to retain nanoparticles(about 8wt.%), attributed to their interaction with the polymer branches,was determined by thermogravimetricanalysis and confirmed by FTIR and microscopy techniques. By SEMmicroscopy itwas also possible to determinethe homogeneous spatial distribution of the barium sulphate nanoparticles along the polymer matrix.