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Published on: July 21, 2014
Polymerization shrinkage kinetics and degree of conversion of commercial and experimental resin modified glass
Amani Agha1, Sandra Parker1, Mangala Patel1
1Dental Physical Sciences Unit, Queen Mary University of London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom.
Objectives:
Tetrahydrofurfuryl-methacrylate (THFM) and hydroxypropyl-methacrylate (HPM) were used to partially or fully replace HEMA in experimental RMGICs. The experimental materials were compared with home and commercial products in terms of degree of conversion, polymerization shrinkage and exotherm.
Methods:
Two commercial RMGICs used were Fuji-Plus (FP, GC, Japan) and RelyX-Luting (RX, 3M-ESPE, USA). Two additional in-house liquids were prepared based on the commercial materials liquids. Eight experimental liquid compositions (F1, F2, F3 and F4 based on Fuji-Plus; R1, R2, R3 and R4 based on RelyX-Luting) were prepared replacing 100% HEMA with HPM in F1 and R1 or 70%/30% HPM/THFM in F2 and R2. 50% HEMA was replaced with THFM in F3 and R3 compared to 30% in F4 and R4. All liquids were mixed with the corresponding commercial powder. Degree of conversion was determined using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Polymerization shrinkage and exotherm were measured using the bonded-disk method.
Results:
Compositions containing HPM (F1 and R1) showed lower degree of conversion compared to experimental compositions containing THFM, home and commercial materials (p<0.0001). FP-commercial showed significantly higher polymerization shrinkage and exotherm compared to all other materials in both groups (p<0.0001). FP-commercial showed higher degree of polymerization shrinkage and exotherm at 5min compared to all materials due to the incorporation of an additional cross-linker (glycerol-dimethacrylate). In general, compositions containing THFM, presented polymerization shrinkage and degree of conversion values similar to their corresponding commercial products.
Significance:
THFM monomer showed promising results and could be potentially useful in the development of new RMGICs with improved properties.
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