Determination of the degree of cure of dental resins using Raman and FT-Raman spectroscopy

FT-IR spectroscopy has traditionally been used to determine the degree of conversion of dental resins. FT-Raman scattering provided an alternate method of obtaining degrees of conversion for these systems and was particularly useful for measuring spectra of materials without any sample preparation. Raman and FT-Raman spectroscopy gave identical results, but the latter technique was preferred for the highly fluorescent samples often encountered in commercial composites. Linear calibration curves were obtained for the aromatic mixtures Bis-GMA/TEGDMA and Bisphenol-A/TEGDMA using C = C/phi, and for the wholly aliphatic mixture EGDMA/EGDA using C = C/C = O, over a wide range of mole ratios. If both the mole and intensity ratios [C = C/phi or C = C/C = O] were known for an uncured dental resin, then the degrees of conversion could be obtained for the cured materials using Raman spectroscopy. However, if the mole ratios for the uncured resin were unknown, then the degree of conversion depended on the calibration curve, since the Raman scattering cross section of the vibrational modes depended on the molecules to which they were attached.