Abstract
Herein, we report the methodological impact on the curing kinetics of bone cement based on polymer nanocomposites prepared using different methods. Poly (styrene-co-methylmethacrylate)-2D nanofiller nanocomposites (P(S-MMA)-2D Nanofiller) were prepared using bulk and suspension polymerization methods to study the effect of the different methods. The prepared nanocomposites were well-characterized for chemical, thermal, mechanical, and structural characteristics using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), nano-indentation, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques, respectively. The FT-IR results confirmed the successful formation of the polymer nanocomposites. The DSC results showed that the prepared nanocomposites have higher thermal stabilities than their copolymer counterparts. The nano-indentation results revealed that the elastic modulus of the copolymer nanocomposites (bulk polymerization) was as high as 7.89 GPa, and the hardness was 0.219 GPa. Incorporating the 2D nanofiller in the copolymer matrix synergistically enhances the thermo-mechanical properties of the bone cement samples. The polymer nanocomposites prepared using the suspension polymerization method exhibit faster-curing kinetics (15 min) than those prepared using the bulk polymerization (120-240 min) method.