CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSITE BIOMATERIALS

A comparison was made among the elastic moduli of various combinations of dimethacrylates that may be used as matrix resins in dental restor ative composite biomaterials systems, Two ceramic filler materials wit h contrasting shape and size were synthesized by wet chemistry; these were used to produce a range of experimental composite systems, Dynami c elastic moduli determinations were used to study the influence of fi ller volume, filler size/shape, use of silane coupling agents, and sto rage in water, The filler was varied from 0 to 59% by volume for fille r A and from 0 to 48% volume for filler B, Silane treatment was found to have a significant effect on modulus, Moduli for composite material s containing silane-treated filler were higher compared to materials c ontaining the same volume loading of non-silane-treated filler. Using a light curing resin as a matrix gave a significantly higher modulus f or a filler loading of 38% by volume, Storage in water for 29 days was found to have only a slight effect on moduli for composite systems co ntaining in excess of 20% by volume of filler, The experimental compos ite systems produced slightly higher values for moduli than were predi cted by the theoretical Reuss constant stress model. (C) 1996 John Wil ey & Sons, Inc.