Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and study of their influence on the mechanical properties and antibacterial activity of PMMA/ZnO composite for orthotic devices

The present study attempted to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) and incorporate them into PMMA to fabricate a polymethylmethacrylate/Zinc Oxide Nano-particles (PMMA/ZnO-NPs) composite with concentrations of ZnO NPs of 1% wt, 2% wt and 3% wt for potential use in orthotic devices. The chemical composition, the microstructure and the morphology of the obtained composites were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The mechanical properties and the antibacterial activity of the elaborated PMMA/ZnO-NPs were also determined. Results revealed that the optimum amount of ZnO NPs that would enhance the mechanical properties of the PMMA/ZnO NPs composite would be 2% wt. Indeed, this composite exhibited good mechanical properties. It showed a scratch toughness of 378.02 +/- 18.1MPa; a microhardness of 1.7 +/- 0.09MPa.m0.5, and a wear volume of about 2.47 +/- 0.12106 mu m3. This would indicate that there was an improvement of the same respective properties of PMMA by similar to 41%, similar to 42%, and similar to 97%. In addition, this study revealed that the PMMA/ZnO NPs composite had excellent antimicrobial capacity against Escherichia coli (ATCC 25,922) and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29,213. The results showed that the PMMA/ZnO NPs at 2% wt composite could have encouraging implementations in the fabrication of orthotic devices.