Experimental Analysis with GRA-PCA-Based Hybrid Optimization to Analyze the Effect of Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticle-Reinforced UHMWPE for Hip Joint

Abstract

Development in engineering material for total hip joint replacement obtained long life with minimum adverse effects produced in the human body. Due to their exceptional compatibility with tissue and bone, hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (n-HAp) have been employed as a filler material in polymer bio-composite for biomedical applications. This study used hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (n-HAp) as a filler material in ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) at four different wt.-%ages (0[Formula: see text]wt.%, 5[Formula: see text]wt.%, 1[Formula: see text]wt.% 0[Formula: see text]wt.% and 15[Formula: see text]wt.%). This research aims to make UHMWPE/n-HAp bio-composites using heat-assisted compression molding and explore its mechanical characteristics such as flexural strength, compression strength, and impact strength. Microstructural analyses of n-HAp aggregation in UHMWPE using scanning electron microscopic (SEM) are done. The experimental results done by the authors suggest that bio-composite (with UHMWPE+10[Formula: see text]wt.% n-HAp) show superior mechanical properties compared to other hip joint compositions. Here, 10[Formula: see text]wt.% hydroxyapatite nanoparticles- reinforced in UHMWPE improve flexural strength and compression strength by 18.75% and 37.14%, respectively, at the expense of impact strength. Further, the GRA-PCA-based multi-objective optimization hybrid analysis also finds that bio-composite (UHMWPE+10[Formula: see text]wt.% n-HAp) shows the highest mechanical strength with minimal surface roughness value.