Sorption of water, ethanol or ethanol/water solutions by light-cured dental dimethacrylate resins.

Objectives: This work is concerned with the study of the sorption and desorption process of water, ethanol or ethanol/water solution 50% (v/v) or 75% (v/v) by the dental resins prepared by light curing of Bis-GMA, Bis-EMA, UDMA, TEGDMA or D₃MA.

Methods: A thin resin disc is placed in a bath of time to obtain the sorption curve m(t)=f(t). Then the liquid is desorbed until a constant mass for the disc is reached and the desorption curve is recorded. These experimental curves help in the determination of the sorbed/desorbed liquid amount at equilibrium, the percentage of the extracted mass of unreacted monomer known as "solubility", and the sorption/desorption diffusion coefficient which expresses correspondingly the rate of the liquid sorption/desorption.

Results: The highest liquid uptake by dental resins was 13.3wt% ethanol for Bis-GMA-resin, 12.0wt% ethanol for UDMA-resin, 10.10wt% ethanol/water solution for TEGDMA-resin, 7.34wt% ethanol for D(3)MA-resin and 6.61wt% ethanol for Bis-EMA-resin. The diffusion coefficient for all resins was higher in water than in ethanol/water solution or ethanol. Bis-GMA-resin showed the highest diffusion coefficient (11.01 × 10⁻⁸cm² s⁻¹) followed by Bis-EMA-resin (7.43 × 10⁻⁸ cm² s⁻¹), UDMA-resin (6.88 × 10⁻⁸cm² s⁻¹), D(3)MA-resin (6.22 × 10⁻⁸ cm² s⁻¹) and finally by TEGDMA-resin (1.52 ×10⁻⁸ cm² s⁻¹).

Significance: All studied dental resins, except TEGDMA-resin, absorbed higher amount of pure ethanol than water or ethanol water solution. TEGDMA-resin absorbed higher amount of ethanol/water solution (50/50 or 75/25 (v/v)) than water or ethanol. For all studied dental resins the diffusion coefficient was higher in water than in ethanol/water solution or ethanol.