Mechanical properties and antibacterial performance of PMMA toughened with acrylic rubber containing 2-hydroxypropyl-3-piperazinyl-quinoline carboxylic acid methacrylate (HPQM) and HPQM absorbed on TiO2 particles

Materials behaviors and antibacterial performances of Acrylic rubber (AR)/Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends doped with 2-Hydroxypropyl-3-piperazinyl-quinoline carboxylic acid methacrylate (HPQM) and HPQM absorbed on titanium dioxide (HPQM on TiO2) particles were examined. The results revealed that mechanical properties and antibacterial performance of AR/PMMA blends tended to increase with increasing HPQM content, especially at 50 wt% of AR content; however, the antibacterial activity of AR doped with HPQM (AR(HPQM)) blended with PMMA was retarded by the crosslink structure in the AR phase. Our results suggest that the loading of AR at 50 wt% was found to be preferable, with a recommended content of HPQM of 1.5 pph to be added to this blend system. The mechanical properties of TiO2 doped with HPQM before doping on AR (AR(HPQM) on TiO2)/PMMA blends were significantly higher than those of the AR/PMMA and AR doped with TiO2 (AR(TiO2))/PMMA blends with 30-50 wt% of AR content. AR(HPQM) (on TiO2)/PMMA blends showed synergistically antibacterial performance of HPQM and TiO2. It could be concluded that HPQM absorbing on TiO2 particles was an effective coantibacterial agent for all AR/PMMA blend whereas HPQM alone was recommended for AR/PMMA blends at 50 wt% of AR.