Preparation and characterization of silane-modified SiO particles reinforced resin composites with fluorinated acrylate polymer.

A series of fluorinated dental resin composites were prepared with two kinds of SiO particles. Bis-GMA (bisphenol A-glycerolate dimethacrylate)/4-TF-PQEA (fluorinated acrylate monomer)/TEGDMA (triethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (40/30/30, wt/wt/wt) was introduced as resin matrix. SiO nanopartices (30nm) and SiO microparticles (0.3µm) were silanized with 3-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (γ-MPS) and used as fillers. After mixing the resin matrix with 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% SiO nanopartices and 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% SiO microparticles, respectively, the fluorinated resin composites were obtained. Properties including double bond conversion (DC), polymerization shrinkage (PS), water sorption (W), water solubility (W), mechanical properties and cytotoxicity were investigated in comparison with those of neat resin system. The results showed that, filler particles could improve the overall performance of resin composites, particularly in improving mechanical properties and reducing PS of composites along with the addition of filler loading. Compared to resin composites containing SiO microparticles, SiO nanoparticles resin composites had higher DC, higher mechanical properties, lower PS and lower W under the same filler content. Especially, 50% SiO microparticles reinforced resins exhibited the best flexural strength (104.04 ± 7.40MPa), flexural modulus (5.62 ± 0.16GPa), vickers microhardness (37.34 ± 1.13 HV), compressive strength (301.54 ± 5.66MPa) and the lowest polymerization (3.42 ± 0.22%).