Swelling behavior of expandable poly(methyl methacrylate-acrylic acid)/polymethyl methacrylate bio-composites with different crosslinking densities

The volume shrinkage of poly(methyl methacrylate-acrylic acid) (PMMA) bone cement was mainly tackled by the different types and contents of the hydrophilic additives. While the crosslinking density was assumed to regulate the hydrophilic group amounts and 3D network structures in the additives, which influenced the absorption and swelling capacity of the PMMA-based bone cement. In this study, the expandable PMMA/polymethyl methacrylate bio-composites (EBC) with different N, N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) contents were synthesized to investigate the relationship between the crosslinking density and swelling performance, and also promoted the absorption and swelling properties before the solidification of EBC. The results demonstrated that the equilibrium absorption ratio and the equilibrium swelling ratio both exhibited a normal distribution with the various MBA content. In addition, the controlled absorption ratio (7.3–60.2%) and swelling ratio (8.5–61.8%) of EBC could be obtained by altering crosslinking density in the system. Furthermore, EBC could obtain a similar equilibrium absorption ratio and equilibrium swelling ratio with different mechanical properties, which provided more options for meeting the requirements of EBC in different clinical settings.