Properties of Polymer Nanocomposites Useful for Dental Restoration

Abstract

Visible-light activated polymer nanocomposites (PNC) were designed to be used for dental restoration. Hybrid-filler composed of barium silicate and nano-sized silica was adopted as a filler system. To improve the interfacial be havior of the resin matrix of bisphenol A glycerolate methacrylate/triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, the surface of filler was hydrophobically treated with a silane coupling agent. Mechanical properties of PNC were investigated by measuring the abrasion resistance, and it was discovered that PNC showed excellent properties with an increase of nanofiller content. However, the polymerization shrinkage was consistently maintained under 3 vol% and the shrinkage continued even after photo-polymerization. In addition, a slight color difference between PNC specimens was observed with increase of nanofiller content