Toughening Effect of Comonomer on Acrylic Denture Base Resin Prepared via Suspension Copolymerization

In this article, three copolymers used as denture base resins were prepared via suspension copolymerization using butyl acrylate (BA), butyl methacrylate (BMA), or methyl acrylate (MA) with methyl methacrylate (MMA), respectively. The homopolymers and copolymers were characterized by (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance ((13)C NMR). The influence of the three comonomers on the mechanical property was investigated in details and the fracture surfaces of copolymer specimens were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Meanwhile, the T(g) values of three copolymers were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results indicate that, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) copolymers with BA, BMA, or MA have been successfully prepared via suspension copolymerization. The presence of BA, BMA, or MA could improve the mechanical property especially the impact strength, the toughness of the materials was remarkably improved. The toughening effect of BMA monomer is most significant. When the content of BA is 2 wt %, the flexural strength improves by 51% and the impact strength improves by 81.3%. The T(g) values of three copolymers all decrease. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 123: 2406-2413, 2012