PURPOSETo measure the surface loss of dental restorative zirconia and the short-term bond strength between an indirect composite resin (ICR) and zirconia ceramic after various sandblasting processes.MATERIALS AND METHODSThree hundred zirconia bars were randomly divided into 25 groups according to the type of sandblasting performed with pressures of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 MPa, sandblasting times of 7, 14 and 21 seconds, and alumina powder sizes of 50 and 110 µm. The control group did not receive sandblasting. The volume loss and height loss on zirconia surface after sandblasting and the shear bond strength (SBS) between the sandblasted zirconia and ICR after 24-h immersion were measured for each group using multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Least Significance Difference (LSD) test (α=.05). After sandblasting, the failure modes of the ICR/zirconia surfaces were observed using scanning electron microscopy.RESULTSThe volume loss and height loss were increased with higher sandblasting pressure and longer sandblasting treatment, but they decreased with larger powder size. SBS was significantly increased by increasing the sandblasting time from 7 seconds to 14 seconds and from 14 seconds to 21 seconds, as well as increasing the size of alumina powder from 50 µm to 110 µm. SBS was significantly increased from 0.1 MPa to 0.2 MPa according to the size of alumina powder. However, the SBSs were not significantly different with the sandblasting pressure of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 MPa. The possibilities of the combination of both adhesive failure and cohesive failure within the ICR were higher with the increases in bonding strength.CONCLUSIONBased on the findings of this study, sandblasting with alumina particles at 0.2 MPa, 21 seconds and the powder size of 110 µm is recommended for dental applications to improve the bonding between zirconia core and ICR.

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a new material used for the frameworks of removable partial dentures (RPD). The questions whether the PEEK framework has similar stress distribution on oral tissue and displacement under masticatory forces as titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) or cobalt-chromium alloy (CoCr) remain unclear and worth exploring. A patient’s intraoral data were obtained via CBCT and master model scan. Four RPDs were designed by 3Shape dental system, and the models were processed by three-dimensional finite element analysis. Among three materials tested, PEEK has the lowest maximum von Mises stress (VMS) on periodontal ligament (PDL), the greatest maximum VMS on mucosa, the maximum displacement on free-end of framework, and the lowest maximum VMS on framework. Results suggested that PEEK framework has a good protective effect on PDL, suggesting applications for patients with poor periodontal conditions. However, the maximum displacement of the free-end under masticatory force is not conducive for denture stability, along with large stress on the mucosa indicate that PEEK is unsuitable for patients with more loss of posterior teeth with free-end edentulism.

Formation of transcrystalline layer probably enhances the interfacial adhesion of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)/natural fiber biocomposites as confirmed by this work. We found that a crystallization accelerator, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), improved chain mobility of PLLA and thus enhanced the growth kinetics of ramie fiber-induced transcrystallinity (TC). The direct observation of polarized optical microscopy during isothermal crystallization revealed that large-sized TC with rapid growth was produced after adding PEG. It could be exemplified by the case at 125 °C that the growth rate of TC developed in PLLA10 (containing 10 wt % PEG) achieved 6.1 μm/min, which was nearly triple that of pure PLLA (2.1 μm/min). And interestingly enough, spherulitic nucleation proceeding was largely restricted because it was difficult to fulfill the critical size for stable nuclei due to the increased chain mobility. Meanwhile, combining the effective nucleation activity of ramie fibers and acceleration virtue of PEG offered the chance to form prevailing TC texture, instead of rich spherulites dominated in pure PLLA. The local structure (including lamellar structure and molecular orientation) of transcrystalline layers was further determined, which indicated that TC presented α crystal form and random lamellar packing derived from the moderate nucleating ability. To our surprise, the single fiber reinforced composite samples containing prevailing TC textures achieved remarkably higher strength compared to that of pure PLLA samples with poorly developed transcrystalline layers, as demonstrated by the single-fiber pull-out test.

Understanding nonlinear dielectric behavior in polar polymers is crucial to their potential application as next generation high energy density and low loss dielectrics. In this work, we studied nonlinear dielectric properties of a biaxially oriented poly(vinylidene fluoride) (BOPVDF) film under both low and high electric fields. For fundamental nonlinear dielectric constants at low fields (<30 MV/m), Novocontrol high-voltage broadband dielectric spectroscopy (HVBDS) was accurate enough to measure up to the third harmonics. It was observed that the low-field dielectric nonlinearity for the BOPVDF disappeared above 10 Hz at room temperature, suggesting that the low-field dielectric nonlinearity originated from ionic migration of impurity ions rather than dipolar relaxation of the amorphous segments. Above the coercive field (EC ≈ 70 MV/m), bipolar electric displacement-electric field (D-E) loop tests were used to extract the nonlinear behavior for pure PVDF crystals, which had a clear origin of ferroelectric switching of polar crystalline dipoles and domains and nonpolar-to-polar (α → δ → β) phase transformations. By using HVBDS, it was observed that the ferroelectric switching of polar crystalline dipoles and domains in BOPVDF above the EC always took place between 20 and 500 Hz regardless of a broad range of temperature from -30 to 100 °C. This behavior was drastically different from that of the amorphous PVDF dipoles, which had a strong dependence on frequency over orders of magnitude.