Evaluation the mechanical properties of PMMA / ZrO2 nanoparticles for dental application

Abstract

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) mechanical strength still has a couple of disadvantages form long term denture. This work aims to evaluate the influence of Zirconium nanoparticle (ZrO2) with various concentrations (0.15, 0.35, 0.6, 0.9) on tensile, compression, fatigue strength, and hardness test. The rise of the ZrO₂  nanoparticles ratio yielded to a proportional increase in the material composite strength of tensile. In addition, the compression test showed that the ZrO₂ ratio rise increased the compressive strength of the compound material. As for the hardness test, it has been noted that the article has a high hardness ratio and is almost perfect. Moreover, the rate of fatigue test, which is a measure of the susceptibility of corrosion-resistant material, yielded good result in which the content has shown the ability to resist erosion for a long time. All over, the results mentioned above showed reliable capacity for denture base material with improved strength, fatigue, hardness and compression with the of addition ZrO2 nanoparticles to PMMA.