Filler Content in Plastics
Not the night sky, but rather an elemental map of filler in a polymer matrix. The bright spots are zirconium oxide in PMMA. Inorganic fillers are often added to thermoplastics to provide increased rigidity, hardness, impact strength, thermal conductivity, radiopacity, as well as reduced mold shrinkage. Filler, in the form of a powder, is normally […]
Monomer Analysis in Bone Cement
Polymer methyl methacrylate-based bone cement is commonly used in some hip and knee replacement arthroplasty surgeries to fix the metal components in place in the joint space. These cements are normally provided as two components. The first component, a powder, contains pre-polymerized PMMA powder along with some initiator (usually benzoyl peroxide) and a radiopacifier (usually […]