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Biophysical properties of foamed and solid polymers used in orthotics and prostheticsKlemen Bohinc,
Anže Abram,
Anamarija Zore,
Roman Štukelj,
Ana Lenarčič,
Rajko Vidrih,
Andrijana Sever Škapin, 2021, original scientific article
Abstract: Orthotic and prosthetic materials should have good mechanical and antibacterial properties. Therefore, in our study, we consider four common foamed closed-cells and two solid polymeric materials regarding their mechanical behaviour and tendency for bacterial adhesion. For all materials, the surface roughness, hydrophobicity, zeta potential, tensile properties, hardness and CIE color parameters were measured. We found that foamed polymeric materials have higher roughness, higher hydrophobicity, lower Young's modulus, lower maximum tensile strength and lower hardness than solid materials. Bacterial adhesion test measurements based on observation by scanning electron microscopy show much a lower adhesion extent of S. aureus on solid materials than on foamed materials. The measured biophysical properties could be the key data for users to select the optimal materials.
Keywords: surface characterization, bacterial adhesion, foamed materials, prosthetic and orthotic material, surfaces
Published in DiRROS: 22.05.2023; Views: 45; Downloads: 28
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