Mechanical and Antibacterial Property Improvement of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate by Adding Cuo Nanoparticles

Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) is a common biomaterial used for endodontic treatment. However, this material does not have antibacterial activity, and the addition of an antibacterial agent is necessary. In this research, CuO nanoparticles (CuONP) have been added to MTA to improve the compressive strength and antibacterial activity. CuONP was synthesized by mixing 25 mL CuSO 4 .5H 2 O 0.5 M and Na 2 CO 3 0.5 M at volume variations (15, 25, and 42 mL), sonicating the mixture at a temperature of 60 °C for 2 hours, and calcining at a temperature of 600 °C for 4 hours. MTA/CuO material was made by mixing MTA and CuONP at variations in weight percentage (1, 2, and 3%). CuONP, MTA, and MTA/CuO were characterized with Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX). The compressive strength and antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were also tested. The results showed that CuONP was successfully synthesized with an average particle size of 21.94 nm. Adding CuONP 2% to MTA improved its compressive strength of 12.03±0.44 MPa. In addition, the presence of CuONP in the MTA gave the antibacterial property of S. aureus with an inhibition zone value of 6.69±0.67 mm for MTA/CuO-2 and 6.77±0.31 mm for MTA added with 3% of CuONP. However, adding CuONP did not increase significant antibacterial activity against P. A eruginosa . Adding CuONP 3% increased the inhibition zone from 5.50±00 to 7.04±0.39 mm. The findings indicated that MTA modified with CuONP can potentially be applied for endodontic treatment even though further investigation is still necessary to test the biocompatibility and cytotoxicity.