Dogan, DenizMetin, Aysegul Ulku2025-01-212025-01-2120222352-4928https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104807https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12587/25274Research on mechanically advanced materials for biological applications involving load-bearing is in progress. Within this scope, this study is the first to propose the fabrication of bionanocomposites combining the different amounts of functionalized boron nitride nanosheets (f-BNNSs, 0-2.0 mg/mL) and poly(hydroxyethyl methac-rylate) (pHEMA). The pristine BN was exfoliated by microwave irradiation to access BNNSs at different powers and times. The as-exfoliated BNNSs were characterized by zeta-sizer, FTIR, XRD, and TEM, which showed that the BNNSs exhibited facile and processable features in tiny sizes. Bionanocomposites were fabricated by pho-topolymerization. The physical, chemical, and mechanical properties, hydrophilic behavior, and degradability of bionanocomposites were evaluated. The mechanical parameters such as Young's modulus and elongation per-centage at break showed that adding f-BNNSs up to 2.0 mg/mL significantly increased the mechanical strength of pHEMA without affecting the hydrophilicity, hemocompatibility, and cytotoxicity. Moreover, the hardness of pHEMA/f-BNNSs composites (38.56 MPa) was remarkably higher than that of pHEMA. There was no cytotoxicity recorded for fabricated bionanocomposites from the MTT assay. All nanocomposites exhibited superior anti-bacterial activities against E.coli and S.aureus compared with pHEMA. However, pHEMA/f-BNNSs composites were more effective against E.coli than S.aureus. While E.coli colonies was reduced 100% at all composites in an hour, S.aureus colonies was completely destroyed with pHEMA/1f-BNNSs and pHEMA/2f-BNNSs after 24 h in-cubation. The study's findings demonstrated that the mechanically improved pHEMA/f-BNNSs films could in-crease the application of pHEMA in biomedical fields.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessBoron nitride nanosheets; Biocomposite; Mechanical and biological characterizationArticle3310.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.1048072-s2.0-85141920308Q2WOS:000907323400004Q2