Effect of initiation chemistry on the fracture toughness, fatigue strength, and residual monomer content of a novel high-viscosity, two-solution acrylic bone cement

Porous-free, two-solution bone cements have been developed in our laboratory as an alternative to commercial powder/liquid formulations. Each pair of solutions consist of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) powder dissolved in methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer, with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) added to one solution as the initiator and N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine (DMPT) added to the other as the activator. When mixed, the solutions polymerize via a free radical reaction, which is governed by the concentrations of initiator and activator and their molar stoichiometry. Previous work by the authors has demonstrated that these two-solution cement compositions are comparable to Simplex P bone cement in polymerization exotherm, setting time, and flexural mechanical properties. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of BPO and DMPT concentrations, along with their molar ratio, on the fracture toughness, fatigue strength, and residual monomer content of the experimental compositions. The results showed that fracture toughness and fatigue strength for the solution cements were comparable to Simplex P and were not significantly affected by the BPO concentration or the BPO:DMPT molar ratio; however, the highest DMPT concentration yielded significantly lower values for both variables. Residual monomer content was significantly affected by both the individual concentrations of BPO and DMPT and their molar ratios. The two-solution cements had significantly higher residual monomer contents versus Simplex P; however, this can be attributed to their higher initial monomer concentration rather than a lower degree of conversion. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 59: 411-421, 2002.