The Effect of Zirconium Dioxide (ZrO) Nanoparticles Addition on the Mechanical Parameters of Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies.

The number of studies on the subject of effects of zirconium dioxide (ZrO) nanoparticles addition on the mechanical parameters of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is still very limited. Therefore, in this research, the authors wanted to assess PMMA modified with the nano-ZrO additive in terms of changes in flexural, impact and tensile strength values in relation to PMMA without such component. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to evaluate the effect of incorporating nano-ZrO into PMMA on individual types of material strength. The obtained numerical data were tabulated and analyzed in the search for percentage changes in those parameters. It was then calculated for each set and the procured model was examined using residual sum of squares (RSS) to assess the discrepancy between the data and the estimation model whilst mean absolute deviation (MAD) was employed to determine robustness. The results of the systematic review were composed of data obtained from individual studies presented in eight independent articles. Overall, the addition of nano-ZrO increases the flexural strength of the composite with the PMMA matrix depending on the size of the ZrO grains administered. Unfortunately, these conclusions are based on a very limited amount of research and require further verification, especially regarding tensile strength.