Wear behaviour of UHMWPE reinforced by carbon nanofiller and paraffin oil for joint replacement

Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2017 Apr 1:73:234-244. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2016.11.088. Epub 2016 Nov 25.

Abstract

The majority of artificial joints incorporate biomedical grade Ultra High Molecular Weight Poly Ethylene (UHMWPE), whose wear is considered most important in controlling service time of the whole joint. The aim of this work was to improve wear resistance of UHMWPE through the addition of 0.5-2.0wt% of Carbon Nano Filler (CNF) and 2% wt of Paraffin Oil (PO) using ball milling (BM) and extrusion techniques (EX). The wear tests on these nanocomposites were conducted by a pin on disc in dry (air) and wet media (simulated synovial fluid or artificial lubricant, and bovine synovial fluid or natural lubricant). Mechanical tests (tensile and hardness), physical analysis (calorimetric, density, wet ability, roughness) and morphological observations were also performed. The experimental results showed that natural lubricant provides the greatest reduction in wear rate while the largest one occurred in air. Furthermore, the BM mixed nanocomposites with a filler load of 1.0% exhibited the best wear resistance among all the samples with an improvement of 42%, 64% and 83% in air, artificial and natural lubricant, respectively. This is due to its higher ductility and thermal features, and lower wet ability in the two lubricants.

Keywords: Mechanical test; Paraffin oil; Surface properties; Synovial lubricant; UHMWPE; Wear.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arthroplasty, Replacement*
  • Carbon / chemistry*
  • Cattle
  • Hardness
  • Lubricants / pharmacology
  • Microscopy, Electron
  • Nanocomposites / chemistry
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Oils / pharmacology*
  • Optical Imaging
  • Paraffin / pharmacology*
  • Polyethylenes / chemistry*
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Surface Properties
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Lubricants
  • Oils
  • Polyethylenes
  • ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene
  • Carbon
  • Paraffin
  • paraffin oils