Characterization of dental composites by thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy

Commercial light-cured dental composites were used in this study. Two laboratorial composites, Resilab (Wilcos/Brazil), Epricord (Kuraray/Japan) were compared under cured and uncured conditions. Thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate the dental composites. The mass change and heat flow signals (TG-DSC) were recorded simultaneously by using STA 409 PC Luxx (NETZSCH), in the 25-800 A degrees C temperature range at a heating rate of 10 A degrees C/min under nitrogen atmosphere (70 mL/min). Employing thermo-microbalance TG 209 C F1 Iris (NETZSCH) coupled to the BRUKER Optics FTIR TENSOR, the samples were analyzed by combined thermogravimetric and spectroscopic methods (TG-FTIR). The initial sample mass was about similar to 12 mg, the data collection have been done in the 35-800 A degrees C temperature range at a heating rate of 20 K/min in nitrogen atmosphere (flow rate: 40 mL/min). Finally, superficial topographic was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Dental composite evaluation suggests a high thermal stability and inorganic content in RES D sample. Degrees of conversion (DC) values were almost the same and there was no direct relationship between DC and amount of particles and size. Similar compositions were found in all samples.