Although addition of an
antioxidant (
alpha-tocopherol) is reported to prevent delamination in ultrahigh molecular weight
polyethylene (
UHMWPE) knee components, contribution of
alpha-tocopherol as an
antioxidant to the improvement of long-term
fatigue performance of
UHMWPE is an unknown mechanism. To solve this problem, bi-directional sliding
fatigue tests were performed for gamma-irradiated (25 kGy), gamma-irradiated (25 kGy) with 0.3 wt%
alpha-tocopherol added, and gamma-irradiated (25 kGy) with 0.3 wt%
tocopheryl acetate added
UHMWPE specimens. Internal defect initiation was quantified with scanning acoustic tomography (SAT). Also, oxidation index and crystallinity were obtained from infrared absorption spectra measured using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microscopy. Only gamma-irradiated
UHMWPE specimens resulted in severe
fatigue fractures.
alpha-Tocopherol-added
UHMWPE specimens showed significantly lower projected area ratio of defects (1.80+/-0.82) than did gamma-irradiated (7.0+/-2.29) and
tocopheryl acetate-added ones (8.50+/-2.01). The oxidation index of gamma-irradiated
UHMWPE specimens (0.111+/-0.0052) was extremely higher compared to those of doped ones; 0.0179+/-0.0026 and 0.0144+/-0.0069 for
alpha-tocopherol-added and
tocopheryl acetate-added ones, respectively. The crystallinity of gamma-irradiated
UHMWPE specimens (57.5+/-1.16) was lower compared to those of doped ones; 60.3+/-0.72 and 60.4+/-1.38 for
alpha-tocopherol-added and
tocopheryl acetate-added ones, respectively. The incorporation of
alpha-tocopherol significantly improves the long-term
fatigue performance of gamma-irradiated
UHMWPE with oxidation stability. Also, the addition of
alpha-tocopherol controls macromolecular structures resulting in the improvement of
fatigue performance of
UHMWPE.