Abstract
This laboratory study set out to characterize Calcium Phosphate (CaP) based bone cements with added Zinc Oxide (ZnO) embedded in Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Bone cements with varying percentages of CaP mixed with and without varying percentages of ZnO in PMMA were fabricated
by one-step polymerization by reacting equimolar ratios of MMA powder and acrylic resin. Neat-PMMA was used as control throughout the experiment. Fabricated samples were tested for their contact angle measurement, surface roughness, nanohardness, elastic modulus, and also their chemical characterization
using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used as a statistical method, and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. It was found that increasing CaP content elevated the hydrophobicity
of the composites while mechanical properties increased with the increase of CaP. On the contrary, the addition of ZnO did not show any significant effect. The optimal concentration was observed to be at 20% CaP loading where the mechanical properties were balanced with the hydrophilic nature
of CaP. It was also noted that different wt.% of ZnO and CaP did not affect the physicochemical characteristics of the composites. The PMMA-CaP composites demonstrated encouraging results and necessitate further studies to ascertain the implementation of these bone cements clinically.