Interfacial strength of novel PMMA/HA/nanoclay bone cement.

In the present study, nanoclay was introduced to PMMA bone cement to obtain a new formulation of bioactive PMMA cement (PMMA/HA/nanoclay). To evaluate the interfacial property of the new bioactive cement for use as a fixation agent, Brazilian disk specimens were used to study the interfacial strength of synthetic bone-cement interface. The results show that, for tensile loading, the addition of 17.5 wt% HA into PMMA cement produced a notable decrease in the fracture load, while a further addition of 0.5 wt% nanoclay slightly counteracted the decrease due to the addition of HA. The addition of 1.0 wt% nanoclay brought the fracture load back to the same level as that of pure PMMA cement, although with the further increase of nanoclay (1.5 wt% nanoclay and 2.0 wt% nanoclay), the fracture loads decreased again. The same trend in the calculated strain energy release rates was also observed. For shear loading, however, the same trend was not observed due to the premature fracture and collapsing of the foam. This finding may be useful in the development of novel bioactive bone cements to improve the fixation of joint arthroplasty.