Fabrication, structural, and enhanced mechanical behavior of MgO substituted PMMA composites for dental applications

Abstract

Abstract The most common denture material used for dentistry is poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA). Usually, the polymeric PMMA material has numerous biological, mechanical and cost-effective shortcomings. Hence, to resolve such types of drawbacks, attempts have been made to investigate fillers of the PMMA like alumina (Al2O3), silica (SiO2), zirconia (ZrO2) etc. For the enhancement of the PMMA properties a suitable additive is required for its orthopedic applications. Herein, the main motive of this study was to synthesize a magnesium oxide (MgO) reinforced polymer-based hybrid nano-composites by using heat cure method with superior optical, biological and mechanical characteristics. For the structural and vibrational studies of the composites, XRD and FT-IR were carried out. Herein, the percentage of crystallinity for all the fabricated composites were also calculated and found to be 14.79–30.31. Various physical and optical parameters such as density, band gap, Urbach energy, cutoff energy, cutoff wavelength, steepness parameter, electron–phonon interaction, refractive index, and optical dielectric constant were also studied and their values are found to be in the range of 1.21–1.394 g/cm3, 5.44–5.48 eV, 0.167–0.027 eV, 5.68 eV, 218 nm, 0.156–0.962, 4.273–0.693, 1.937–1.932, and 3.752–3.731 respectively. To evaluate the mechanical properties like compressive strength, flexural strength, and fracture toughness of the composites a Universal Testing Machine (UTM) was used and their values were 60.3 and 101 MPa, 78 and 40.3 MPa, 5.85 and 9.8 MPa-m1/2 respectively. Tribological tests of the composites were also carried out. In order to check the toxicity, MTT assay was also carried out for the PM0 and PM15 [(x)MgO + (100 − x) (C5O2H8)n] (x = 0 and 15) composites. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the structural, physical, optical, and biological features of the fabricated PMMA-MgO composites, highlighting the potential of the PM15 composite with its enhanced density, mechanical strength, and excellent biocompatibility for denture applications.