Improvement of mechanical properties of polycaprolactone (PCL) by addition of nano-montmorillonite (MMT) and hydroxyapatite (HA)

Abstract

F or many years, researcher have focused on developing a medical part of human body from polym er as to replace metal. This report described the mechanical characteristic of biodegradable Polycaprolactone (PCL) blend with nano - Montmorillonite ( MMT ) and Hydroxyapatite ( HA ) . The amount of nano - MMT is varies from 2 to 4 by weight % meanwhile the amoun t of HA is fixed to 10 by weight percentage (wt %) . The addition of nano - MMT and HA filler is to tune and indirectly improve the mechanical properties of PCL. These are prove n by carrying out the tensile, and also flexural test for samples which is injecte d from injection molding m achine. Both the tensile and flexural test are conducted using Shimadzu AG - I Unversal Testing Machine with 10 k N capacity. From the analysis it is found that overall PCL/ MMT/ HA composites gives better result in both tensile and fle xural analysis compare to PCL/MMT composite. PCL/MMT/HA composite with 2 wt% of MMT and 10 wt% of HA have indicated the highest tensile modulu s, meanwhile PCL/MMT/HA composite with 4 wt% MMT and 10 wt% HA have plot ted the highest flexural strength and modu lus value.