Thermal and mechanical behavior evaluation of dental composites filled with irradiated montmorillonite

Abstract

The effects of pre-irradiation treatment (dose ranged from 25 to 50 kGy) of MMT (Montmorillonite) nanoclay added as filler (50 wt %) in experimental dental composites was studied; composites containing similar amounts of non-irradiated MMT were also tested. The thermal stability of the resulting material was tested by thermogravimetric analysis ranging from 50 to 800 8C. Elastic modulus and flexural strength were determined by the three point bending test (n510). Data for elastic modulus was analyzed using two way ANOVA/Tukey’s test. Data for flexural strength was analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis/Tukey’s test. For all tests, the global significance level was 5%. The modifications in elastic modulus and flexural strength with applied dose were characterized. X-ray diffraction analysis allows the depicting of intercalation phenomenon between base-polymer and nanophase. The polymeric system modified with MMT nanoparticles showed higher thermal stability by delaying the thermal degradation, compared to the control group, and the radiation dose influenced this thermal behavior directly. However, the applied dose was not sufficient to improve the mechanical properties significantly, which is related to the interaction between MMT and polymeric matrix. The pre-irradiation treatment of MMT nanoclay phase was useful for attaining efficient interaction between the two constitutive phases of the polymeric systems based bis-GMA/TEGDMA [bisphenol A bis(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloxypropyl)ether/triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate], modified with MMT nanoparticles, because the polymer component was not affected.