Improvements in self-curing composites.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Dental Materials

Background:

• Acrylic resins are widely used in dental composites.
• Improving the color stability, sorption, and solubility of acrylic resins is crucial for clinical longevity.
• Catalytic systems and filler modifications can influence composite properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a barbituric acid derivative catalyst and pyrolytic silica on acrylic resin composites.
• To assess the effects on color stability, sorption, and solubility.
• To investigate changes in polymerization temperature and mechanical strength.

Main Methods:

• Preparation of two-component powder/liquid acrylic resin systems.
• Incorporation of bis-GMA, TEGDMA, tertiary amine, quartz powder, silica, and barbituric acid derivatives.
• Measurement of polymerization temperature, flexural strength, compressive strength, sorption, and solubility according to ISO4049:2009.

Main Results:

• Addition of 0.5% barbituric acid derivative reduced polymerization temperature from 43°C to 37°C.
• Improved color stability (ΔE=1.81) was observed with specific barbituric acid derivative and BPO concentrations.
• Silanized quartz composite with 0.1% BA and 0.5% Aerosil R711 showed sorption of 4.57±0.22μg/mm³ and solubility of 1.60±0.32μg/mm³.

Conclusions:

• The novel catalytic system with barbituric acid derivatives enhances color stability under ambient and high-intensity light conditions.
• The two-phase composite exhibits a reduced self-cured temperature.
• Incorporating hydrophobic silica (0.5%) significantly decreases material sorption and solubility.