This study evaluated the effect of accelerated ageing on the tensile
strength, elongation at break, hardness and Charpy impact strength in
commercial PMMA denture base material modified with di-methyl itaconate (DMI)
and di-n-butyl itaconate (DBI). The samples were prepared by modifying
commercial formulation by addition of itaconates in the amounts of 2.5, 5,
7.5 and 10% by weight. After polymerization samples were characterized by
FT-IR and DSC analysis while residual monomer content was determined by
HPLC-UV. Accelerated ageing was performed at 70?C in water for periods of 7,
15 and 30 days. Tensile measurements were performed using Instron testing
machine while the hardness of the polymerized samples was measured by Shore D
method. The addition of itaconate significantly reduces the residual MMA.
Even at the small amounts of added itaconates (2.5%) the residual MMA content
was reduced by 50%. The increase of itaconate content in the system leads to
the decrease of residual MMA. It has been found that the addition of
di-n-alkyl itaconates decreases the tensile strength, hardness and Charpy
impact strength and increases elongation at break. Samples modified with DMI
had higher values of tensile strength, hardness and Charpy impact strength
compared to the ones modified with DBI. This is explained by the fact that
DBI has longer side chain compared to DMI. After accelerated ageing during a
30 days period the tensile strength decreased for all the investigated
samples. The addition of DMI had no effect on the material ageing and the
values for the tensile strength of all of the investigated samples decreased
around 20%, while for the samples modified with DBI, the increase of the
amount of DBI in the polymerized material leads to the higher decrease of the
tensile strength after the complete accelerated ageing period od 30 days,
aulthough after the first seven days of the accelerated ageing the values of
hardness have increased for all of the investigated samples. Such behavior is
explained as the result of the polymer chain relaxation. The values of Charpy
impact strength decreased after accelerated ageing. The amount of added DMI
have no affect on the decrease of Charpy impact strength after accelerated
ageing, the decrease was similar as for pure PMMA. The decrease of Charpy
impact strength increased as the amount of added DBI increases.