| dc.description.abstract | Ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers possess exceptional mechanical properties,
barrier properties and biocompatibility, thus they are potentially to become as materials
for biomedical applications. In this research, neat EVA incorporating with the
organically modified montmorillonite/bentonite (OMMT/Bent) hybrid nanofiller in different ratio (3:0, 2.75:0.25, 2.5:0.5, 2.25:0.75, 2:1 and 0:3 in wt. %) were prepared by
z-blade mixer at 50 r.p.m. and 175 , compressed into 1 mm sheet at 10 atm. and
160 . The morphology of the neat EVA, EVA nanocomposites and EVA hybrid
nanocomposites was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The
biostability of these materials was analysed by comparing the percent reduction of
tensile strength upon the in vitro exposure (4 weeks of immersion in PBS solution at
37 ), the FTIR spectrum and SEM characteristics before and after the in vitro
exposure. The better filler dispersion of OMMT/Bent nanofillers than control Bent
nanofillers was observed by TEM. Except for EVAO2B1, all the EVA/OMMT/Bent
hybrid nanocomposites show statistically no different its ambient and in vitro tensile
properties by comparing with neat EVA. EVAO2.75B0.25 had achieved the least reduction
in mechanical properties upon 4 weeks exposed to phosphate buffered saline (PBS)
solution at 37 . Furthermore, the results from SEM and FTIR had strongly proven the
improvement in biostability with the addition of O2.75B0.25 hybrid nanofiller into EVA
matrix. The obtained results indicate that the potential of using the hybrid OMMT/Bent
nanofiller for biostability enhancement of the EVA and reducing the costs of EVA
nanocomposites production by using less expensive Bent as co-filler with the OMMT. | en_US |
