Production of Bone Cement Composite from Polymethyl Methacrylate Produced in Laboratory Scale

Bone cement is an indispensable material in orthopedic medicine. In Indonesia, the fulfillment of bone cement needs still depends on imports from other countries. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one of the main ingredients of bone cement which can be made from suspension polymerization of methyl methacrylate monomer (MMA). Therefore, this study aims to develop a technique for producing bone cement from PMMA. The production of bone cement consists of (1) the manufacture of PMMA, (2) the mixing of solid mixtures, (3) the mixing of solid mixtures and liquid mixtures, and (4) the molding of bone cement composites. The concentrations of barium sulfate (BaSO4) used were 7%, 9%, and 11% by weight. Composite products were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H-NMR), and Compressive Strength. The increase of BaSO4 can trigger more smooth surface of bone cement composite. The tacticity from H-NMR shows that the bone cement dominantly consists of syndiotactic (58.83-59.91%) molecular arrangement. The highest compressive strength was 84.2 MPa which was obtained in 9% BaSO4 weight.