N.M. Bahadur, M.D. Kawser, S. Alam, F.N. Robel, S. Hossain, R. Rashid, S. Ahmed
Noakhali Science and Technology University,
Bangladesh
Keywords: nanocomposite, biomaterials, polymer, FT-IR, SEM
Summary:
Outstanding biodegradability, as well as biocompatibility, are attributes associated with particular polyester and epoxy substances that make these groups useful in specific biomedical fields. In this research, two novel composites of hydroxyapatite (HAp), silica (SiO2), epoxy resin, and HAp-reinforced unsaturated polyester resin were produced to evaluate their possibility as a biomaterial. Using a hand-lay-up technique, various percentages (50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10%) of hydroxyapatite (HAp) were reinforced into the polyester resin matrix to make composite material out of glass sheets. On the other hand, different percentages (1.25%, 2.5%, 3.75%, and 5%) of silica (SiO2) with hydroxyapatite (HAp) were reinforced into the epoxy resin matrix (50%) through a hand-lay-up process. Before the processing of the mixed samples, hydroxyapatite was wet chemically synthesized. The prepared materials were characterized using a universal testing machine (UTM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Tests in simulated body fluid (SBF) solution, water, and various pH ranges were also used to assess the absorption and degradation properties of the composites. According to the findings of the tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), percentage of elongation at break (%EB), bending strength (BS) and bending modulus (BM), the optimal percentage of hydroxyapatite is 40% for polyester resin-based composite. Where improvements in TS, TM, BS, and BM for the ideal combination (60% resin + 40% HAp) over the controlled one are 39.388%, 9.21%, 912.05%, and 259.96%, respectively. On the other hand, for an epoxy resin-based composite, a 2.5% silica-added mixture was found to be the ideal combination for the composite. In comparison with the control sample, the most effective mixture (2.5% silica + 47.5% HAp + 50% epoxy resin) exhibited improvements of 329.77% and 107.17% in the BM and the BS, respectively. Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) has been implemented to determine the degradation temperature of the fabricated composites up to 690 oC. These findings demonstrated that silica and HAp-loaded epoxy resin composites can be appropriately employed in biomedical settings. Load bearing orthopedic application of the prepared materials are underway.