Abstract
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one of the common widely accepted biomaterials in prosthetic dentistry due to its acceptable advantages, since 1937. In the present work, PMMA reinforced with Al2O3 nanowires (Al2O3 NWs) and ZrO2 nanoparticles (ZrO2 NPs) were fabricated by a self-curing method. Mechanical and tribological tests were conducted to study the effect of nanofillers on the mechanical and tribological performance of PMMA nanocomposites. Compression and microhardness tests, as mechanical tests, were accomplished to estimate the elastic modulus and microhardness number of the present nanocomposites. Also, tribological properties of unfilled PMMA and its nanocomposites were realized by pin-on-disk tester under dry sliding conditions. Wear test was conducted at room temperature under applied loads of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 N at a constant sliding speed and distance of 1.256 m/s and 226 m, respectively to study wear rate and coefficient of friction (COF) of the nanocomposites. Experimental results revealed that the elastic modulus, microhardness, wear rate, and COF were enhanced with increasing nanofiller content up to 0.5 and 0.7 wt. % of Al2O3 NWs and ZrO2 NPs, respectively. Also, wear rate increased with increasing applied loads up to 50 N, while COF decreased with increasing applied loads up to 40 N. Finally, specimens� worn surfaces were examined and imaged using scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Highlights
Polymeric nanocomposites (PNCs) have been widely applied in numerous engineering and medical fields such as coatings, automobiles, and aerospace due to their appropriate and good thermal, mechanical, electrical, physical, and optical properties [1, 2].Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) resin is the most acrylic material widely used for denture applications because it possesses a combination of suitable characteristics including inexpensive fabrication, light weight, ease of laboratory manipulation, and stability in the oral environment [3, 4]
It is because Al2O3 NWs and ZrO2 NPs nanofillers have high elastic modulus, and the applied stress transferred from the PMMA to Al2O3 NWs and ZrO2 NPs
Nanofillers of Al2O3 NWs and ZrO2 NPs were dragged out from PMMA during sliding wear transferred to the contact zone of PMMA nanocomposites and sliding disk surface, that was contributed in enhancement of the specimens worn surfaces, as seen in Figure 10 b and d
Summary
PMMA resin is the most acrylic material widely used for denture applications because it possesses a combination of suitable characteristics including inexpensive fabrication, light weight, ease of laboratory manipulation, and stability in the oral environment [3, 4] It is an important thermoplastic material having many applications in several fields due to its unique mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal properties [5]. Those applications are at diverse fields like polymer electrolytes, organic sensors, biomedical, solar cells, organic electronic devices nanotechnology, nonvolatile memory, and molecular separators [6]. Alamgir et al [7] fabricated PMMA/TiO2 nanocomposites as denature bases, where they found that these nanocomposites have high mechanical and biological properties to be used at dental applications
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