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Ceramic-polymer composites for medical application

Mikolaj Szafran 1Gabriel Rokicki 1Malgorzata Lewandowska 2

1. Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Koszykowa 75, Warszawa 00-662, Poland
2. Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering (InMat), Wołoska 141, Warszawa 02-507, Poland

Abstract

Ceramic-polymer composites are widely used as dental materials and support for living cells in tissue engineering. However, they still have shortcomings limiting their application and need to be improved. In this study, a new synthesized urethane-methacrylic resin with low polymerization shrinkage and reduced oxygen inhibition was used as a component of a photocurable composite. Experimental samples were prepared from the unfilled resins by mixing with the silane-treated filler. Volumeric shrinkage and degree of conversion of the unfilled resins were examined by density measurements and FTIR spectroscopy. Filler containing samples were used for the microstructure analysis and microhardness tests. The results were compared with a commonly used Bis-GMA-based resin.

The results have shown that unfilled urethane-methacrylic resin exhibits significantly higher photopolymerization rate than the resin based on Bis-GMA. In addition, it consists of the monomers containing four methacrylic groups in a molecule and exhibits a very low polymerization shrinkage of 2,5% which is about 4 times lower than the shrinkage of a conventional Bis-GMA/TEGDMA system. The results indicate that urethane-methacrylic resin is a promising material that can be used as an alternative to Bis-GMA, mainly due to a relatively low polymerization shrinkage and low oxygen inhibition.

Polymer-ceramic composites for the tissue engineering based on a porous ceramic material consists of a porous ceramic of a mixture of hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate, and the polymer phase, filling the pores of the ceramic material, consists of a biodegradable lactide-carbonate macromonomer which fills, to a variable degree, the pores of the ceramic base. Preliminary tests have shown that the calcium phosphate materials used are well tolerated by osteogenic human cells in in vitro cultures.

This work was financially supported by Ministry of Science and Higher Education: Project no. R 0802701

 

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Related papers

Presentation: Oral at E-MRS Fall Meeting 2008, Symposium I, by Mikolaj Szafran
See On-line Journal of E-MRS Fall Meeting 2008

Submitted: 2008-05-19 14:19
Revised:   2009-06-07 00:48