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History

Names

Properties

• A small amount of acrylate comonomers are routinely used in PMMA grades destined for heat processing, since this stabilizes the polymer to depolymerization ("unzipping") during processing.
• Comonomers such as butyl acrylate are often added to improve impact strength.
• Comonomers such as methacrylic acid can be added to increase the glass transition temperature of the polymer for higher temperature use such as in lighting applications.
• Plasticizers may be added to improve processing properties, lower the glass transition temperature, improve impact properties, and improve mechanical properties such as elastic modulus JOURNAL, López, Alejandro, Hoess, Andreas, Thersleff, Thomas, Ott, Marjam, Engqvist, HÃ¥kan, Persson, Cecilia, 2011-01-01, Low-modulus PMMA bone cement modified with castor oil, Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, en, 21, 5–6, 323–332, 10.3233/BME-2012-0679, 22561251, 0959-2989, free,
• Dyes may be added to give color for decorative applications, or to protect against (or filter) UV light.
• Fillers may be substituted to reduce cost.

Synthesis and processing

Applications

Glass substitute

• PMMA is commonly used for constructing residential and commercial aquariums. Designers started building large aquariums when poly(methyl methacrylate) could be used. It is less often used in other building types due to incidents such as the Summerland disaster.
• PMMA is used for viewing ports and even complete pressure hulls of submersibles, such as the Alicia submarine's viewing sphere and the window of the bathyscaphe Trieste.
• PMMA is used in the lenses of exterior lights of automobiles.BOOK, Kutz, Myer, Handbook of Materials Selection,weblink limited, John Wiley & Sons, 2002, 341, 978-0-471-35924-1,
• Spectator protection in ice hockey rinks is made from PMMA.
• Historically, PMMA was an important improvement in the design of aircraft windows, making possible such designs as the bombardier's transparent nose compartment in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Modern aircraft transparencies often use stretched acrylic plies.
• Police vehicles for riot control often have the regular glass replaced with PMMA to protect the occupants from thrown objects.
• PMMA is an important material in the making of certain lighthouse lenses.Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Illumination {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123055321weblink |date=2009-01-23}}. Terrypepper.com. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
• PMMA was used for the roofing of the compound in the Olympic Park for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. It enabled a light and translucent construction of the structure.BOOK, Deplazes, Andrea, Constructing Architecture – Materials Processes Structures, A Handbook, Birkhäuser, 2013, 978-3038214526,
• PMMA (under the brand name "Lucite") was used for the ceiling of the Houston Astrodome.

Daylight redirection

• Laser cut acrylic panels have been used to redirect sunlight into a light pipe or tubular skylight and, from there, to spread it into a room.Yeang, Ken. Light Pipes: An Innovative Design Device for Bringing Natural Daylight and Illumination into Buildings with Deep Floor Plan {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305001322weblink |date=2009-03-05}}, Nomination for the Far East Economic Review Asian Innovation Awards 2003 Their developers Veronica Garcia Hansen, Ken Yeang, and Ian Edmonds were awarded the Far East Economic Review Innovation Award in bronze for this technology in 2003.WEB, Fresh Innovators,weblink Lighting up your workplace,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050702103235weblink">weblink 2 July 2005, May 9, 2005, Kenneth Yeang {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925033953weblink |date=2008-09-25}}, World Cities Summit 2008, June 23–25, 2008, Singapore
• Attenuation being quite strong for distances over one meter (more than 90% intensity loss for a 3000 K sourceJOURNAL, 10.1582/LEUKOS.01.04.003, Victor, Gerchikov, Michele, Mossman, Lorne, Whitehead, 2005, Modeling Attenuation versus Length in Practical Light Guides, LEUKOS, 1, 4, 47–59, 220306943, ), acrylic broadband light guides are then dedicated mostly to decorative uses.
• Pairs of acrylic sheets with a layer of microreplicated prisms between the sheets can have reflective and refractive properties that let them redirect part of incoming sunlight in dependence on its angle of incidence. Such panels act as miniature light shelves. Such panels have been commercialized for purposes of daylighting, to be used as a window or a canopy such that sunlight descending from the sky is directed to the ceiling or into the room rather than to the floor. This can lead to a higher illumination of the back part of a room, in particular when combined with a white ceiling, while having a slight impact on the view to the outside compared to normal glazing.How Serraglaze works {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305001319weblink |date=2009-03-05}}. Bendinglight.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-09.Glaze of light {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110100911weblink |date=2009-01-10}}, Building Design Online, June 8, 2007

Medicine

• PMMA has a good degree of compatibility with human tissue, and it is used in the manufacture of rigid intraocular lenses which are implanted in the eye when the original lens has been removed in the treatment of cataracts. This compatibility was discovered by the English ophthalmologist Harold Ridley in WWII RAF pilots, whose eyes had been riddled with PMMA splinters coming from the side windows of their Supermarine Spitfire fighters – the plastic scarcely caused any rejection, compared to glass splinters coming from aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane.Robert A. Meyers, "Molecular biology and biotechnology: a comprehensive desk reference", Wiley-VCH, 1995, p. 722 {{ISBN|1-56081-925-1}} Ridley had a lens manufactured by the Rayner company (Brighton & Hove, East Sussex) made from Perspex polymerised by ICI. On 29 November 1949 at St Thomas' Hospital, London, Ridley implanted the first intraocular lens at St Thomas's Hospital in London.BOOK, Apple, David J, Sir Harold Ridely and His Fight for Sight: He Changed the World So That We May Better See It, 2006, Slack, Thorofare NJ USA, 978-1-55642-786-2,

• Eyeglass lenses are commonly made from PMMA.
• Historically, hard contact lenses were frequently made of this material. Soft contact lenses are often made of a related polymer, where acrylate monomers containing one or more hydroxyl groups make them hydrophilic.
• In orthopedic surgery, PMMA bone cement is used to affix implants and to remodel lost bone.JOURNAL, Carroll, Gregory T., Kirschman, David L., 2022-07-13, A portable negative pressure unit reduces bone cement fumes in a simulated operating room, Scientific Reports, en, 12, 1, 11890, 10.1038/s41598-022-16227-x, 2045-2322, 9279392, 35831355, 2022NatSR..1211890C, It is supplied as a powder with liquid methyl methacrylate (MMA). Although PMMA is biologically compatible, MMA is considered to be an irritant and a possible carcinogen. PMMA has also been linked to cardiopulmonary events in the operating room due to hypotension.JOURNAL, Timothy J., Kaufmann, Mary E., Jensen, Gabriele, Ford, Lena L., Gill, William F., Marx, David F., Kallmes, Cardiovascular Effects of Polymethylmethacrylate Use in Percutaneous Vertebroplasty, American Journal of Neuroradiology, 11950651,weblink 2002-04-01, 23, 4, 601–4, 7975098, Bone cement acts like a grout and not so much like a glue in arthroplasty. Although sticky, it does not bond to either the bone or the implant; rather, it primarily fills the spaces between the prosthesis and the bone preventing motion. A disadvantage of this bone cement is that it heats up to {{Convert|82.5|C|F}} while setting that may cause thermal necrosis of neighboring tissue. A careful balance of initiators and monomers is needed to reduce the rate of polymerization, and thus the heat generated.
• In cosmetic surgery, tiny PMMA microspheres suspended in some biological fluid are injected as a soft-tissue filler under the skin to reduce wrinkles or scars permanently.WEB, Filling in Wrinkles Safely,weblink U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 8 December 2015, February 28, 2015, live,weblink 21 November 2015, PMMA as a soft-tissue filler was widely used in the beginning of the century to restore volume in patients with HIV-related facial wasting. PMMA is used illegally to shape muscles by some bodybuilders.
• Plombage is an outdated treatment of tuberculosis where the pleural space around an infected lung was filled with PMMA balls, in order to compress and collapse the affected lung.
• Emerging biotechnology and biomedical research use PMMA to create microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices, which require 100 micrometre-wide geometries for routing liquids. These small geometries are amenable to using PMMA in a biochip fabrication process and offers moderate biocompatibility.
• Bioprocess chromatography columns use cast acrylic tubes as an alternative to glass and stainless steel. These are pressure rated and satisfy stringent requirements of materials for biocompatibility, toxicity, and extractables.

Dentistry

Acrylic prosthetic construction: Pre-polymerized, powdered PMMA spheres are mixed with a Methyl Methacrylate liquid monomer, Benzoyl Peroxide (initiator), and NN-Dimethyl-P-Toluidine (accelerator), and placed under heat and pressure to produce a hardened polymerized PMMA structure. Through the use of injection molding techniques, wax based designs with artificial teeth set in predetermined positions built on gypsum stone models of patients' mouths can be converted into functional prosthetics used to replace missing dentition. PMMA polymer and methyl methacrylate monomer mix is then injected into a flask containing a gypsum mold of the previously designed prosthesis, and placed under heat to initiate polymerization process. Pressure is used during the curing process to minimize polymerization shrinkage, ensuring an accurate fit of the prosthesis. Though other methods of polymerizing PMMA for prosthetic fabrication exist, such as chemical and microwave resin activation, the previously described heat-activated resin polymerization technique is the most commonly used due to its cost effectiveness and minimal polymerization shrinkage.

Artificial teeth: While denture teeth can be made of several different materials, PMMA is a material of choice for the manufacturing of artificial teeth used in dental prosthetics. Mechanical properties of the material allow for heightened control of aesthetics, easy surface adjustments, decreased risk of fracture when in function in the oral cavity, and minimal wear against opposing teeth. Additionally, since the bases of dental prosthetics are often constructed using PMMA, adherence of PMMA denture teeth to PMMA denture bases is unparalleled, leading to the construction of a strong and durable prosthetic.BOOK, Prosthodontic treatment for edentulous patients : complete dentures and implant-supported prostheses, 2013, Elsevier Mosby, Zarb, George Albert, 9780323078443, 13th, St. Louis, Mo., 773020864,

Art and aesthetics

• Acrylic paint essentially consists of PMMA suspended in water; however since PMMA is hydrophobic, a substance with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups needs to be added to facilitate the suspension.
• Modern furniture makers, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to give their products a space age aesthetic, incorporated Lucite and other PMMA products into their designs, especially office chairs. Many other products (for example, guitars) are sometimes made with acrylic glass to make the commonly opaque objects translucent.
• Perspex has been used as a surface to paint on, for example by Salvador Dalí.
• Diasec is a process which uses acrylic glass as a substitute for normal glass in picture frames. This is done for its relatively low cost, light weight, shatter-resistance, aesthetics and because it can be ordered in larger sizes than standard picture framing glass.
• As early as 1939, Los Angeles-based Dutch sculptor Jan De Swart experimented with samples of Lucite sent to him by DuPont; De Swart created tools to work the Lucite for sculpture and mixed chemicals to bring about certain effects of color and refraction.de Swart, Ursula. My Life with Jan. Collection of Jock de Swart, Durango, CO
• From approximately the 1960s onward, sculptors and glass artists such as Jan Kubíček, Leroy Lamis, and Frederick Hart began using acrylics, especially taking advantage of the material's flexibility, light weight, cost and its capacity to refract and filter light.
• In the 1950s and 1960s, Lucite was an extremely popular material for jewelry, with several companies specialized in creating high-quality pieces from this material. Lucite beads and ornaments are still sold by jewelry suppliers.
• Acrylic Sheets are produced in dozens of standard colors,Plexiglas® Color Numbers {{webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160518084847weblink |date=2016-05-18}}. professionalplastics.com most commonly sold using color numbers developed by Rohm & Haas in the 1950s.

Other uses

• PMMA, in the commercial form Technovit 7200 is used vastly in the medical field. It is used for plastic histology, electron microscopy, as well as many more uses.
• PMMA has been used to create ultra-white opaque membranes that are flexible and switch appearance to transparent when wet.JOURNAL, Syurik, Julia, Jacucci, Gianni, Onelli, Olimpia D., Holscher, Hendrik, Vignolini, Silvia, 22 February 2018, Bio-inspired Highly Scattering Networks via Polymer Phase Separation, Advanced Functional Materials, 28, 24, 1706901, 10.1002/adfm.201706901, free,
• Acrylic is used in tanning beds as the transparent surface that separates the occupant from the tanning bulbs while tanning. The type of acrylic used in tanning beds is most often formulated from a special type of polymethyl methacrylate, a compound that allows the passage of ultraviolet rays.
• Sheets of PMMA are commonly used in the sign industry to make flat cut out letters in thicknesses typically varying from {{convert|3|to|25|mm|in|1|sp=us}}. These letters may be used alone to represent a company's name and/or logo, or they may be a component of illuminated channel letters. Acrylic is also used extensively throughout the sign industry as a component of wall signs where it may be a backplate, painted on the surface or the backside, a faceplate with additional raised lettering or even photographic images printed directly to it, or a spacer to separate sign components.
• PMMA was used in Laserdisc optical media.BOOK,weblink registration, PMMA Laserdisc., How Electronic Things Work... And What to do When They Don't, Goodman, Robert L., 2002-11-19, McGraw Hill Professional, 9780071429245, en, (CDs and DVDs use both acrylic and polycarbonate for impact resistance).
• It is used as a light guide for the backlights in TFT-LCDs.{{Citation |last1=Williams |first1=K.S. |title=Recycling liquid crystal displays |date=2012 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780857090898500143 |work=Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Handbook |pages=312–338 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1533/9780857096333.3.312 |isbn=978-0-85709-089-8 |access-date=2022-06-27 |last2=Mcdonnell |first2=T.}}
• Plastic optical fiber used for short-distance communication is made from PMMA, and perfluorinated PMMA, clad with fluorinated PMMA, in situations where its flexibility and cheaper installation costs outweigh its poor heat tolerance and higher attenuation versus glass fiber.
• PMMA, in a purified form, is used as the matrix in laser dye-doped organic solid-state gain media for tunable solid state dye lasers.Duarte, F. J. (Ed.), Tunable Laser Applications (CRC, New York, 2009) Chapters 3 and 4.
• In semiconductor research and industry, PMMA aids as a resist in the electron beam lithography process. A solution consisting of the polymer in a solvent is used to spin coat silicon and other semiconducting and semi-insulating wafers with a thin film. Patterns on this can be made by an electron beam (using an electron microscope), deep UV light (shorter wavelength than the standard photolithography process), or X-rays. Exposure to these creates chain scission or (de-cross-linking) within the PMMA, allowing for the selective removal of exposed areas by a chemical developer, making it a positive photoresist. PMMA's advantage is that it allows for extremely high resolution patterns to be made. Smooth PMMA surface can be easily nanostructured by treatment in oxygen radio-frequency plasmaJOURNAL, 10.1134/S1027451010010015, Vacuum ultraviolet smoothing of nanometer-scale asperities of poly(methyl methacrylate) surface, 2010, Lapshin, R. V., Alekhin, A. P., Kirilenko, A. G., Odintsov, S. L., Krotkov, V. A., Journal of Surface Investigation. X-ray, Synchrotron and Neutron Techniques, 4, 1, 1–11, 97385151, and nanostructured PMMA surface can be easily smoothed by vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation.
• PMMA is used as a shield to stop beta radiation emitted from radioisotopes.
• Small strips of PMMA are used as dosimeter devices during the Gamma Irradiation process. The optical properties of PMMA change as the gamma dose increases, and can be measured with a spectrophotometer.
• Blacklight-reactive UV tattoos may use tattoo ink made with PMMA microcapsules and fluorescent dyes.JOURNAL, Bedocs, Paul M., Cliffel, Maureen, Mahon, Michael J., Pui, John, March 2008, Invisible tattoo granuloma,weblink Cutis, 81, 3, 262–264, 0011-4162, 18441850,
• In the 1960s, luthier Dan Armstrong developed a line of electric guitars and basses whose bodies were made completely of acrylic. These instruments were marketed under the Ampeg brand. IbanezJS2K-PLT {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928120415weblink |date=2007-09-28}}. Ibanezregister.com. Retrieved 2012-05-09. and B.C. Rich have also made acrylic guitars.
• Ludwig-Musser makes a line of acrylic drums called Vistalites, well known as being used by Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
• Artificial nails in the "acrylic" type often include PMMA powder.BOOK, Australian nail technology, Symington, Jan, Tertiary Press, 2006, 978-0864585981, Croydon, Victoria, Australia, 11, Salon management,
• Some modern briar, and occasionally meerschaum, tobacco pipes sport stems made of Lucite.
• PMMA technology is utilized in roofing and waterproofing applications. By incorporating a polyester fleece sandwiched between two layers of catalyst-activated PMMA resin, a fully reinforced liquid membrane is created in situ.
• PMMA is a widely used material to create deal toys and financial tombstones.
• PMMA is used by the Sailor Pen Company of Kure, Japan, in their standard models of gold-nib fountain pens, specifically as the cap and body material.

See also

• Cast acrylic
• Organic laser
• Organic photonics
• Polycarbonate

References

External links

• Perspex Technical Properties
• Perspex Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)