Organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel materials, 2: Application for dental composites

By incorporating poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and poly(styrene-co-methyl methacrylate) (poly(St-co-MMA)) structure units covalently into the SiO₂ glass network via a sol-gel approach, three organic-inorganic hybrid materials (PMMA-SiO₂, PS-SiO₂, and poly(St-co-MMA)-SiO₂) have been prepared. The three hybrid sol-gel materials were used as fillers (up to 60 wt.-%) for dental composite resins. The effect of the three filler materials on several mechanical properties of the dental composite resins was investigated. The hardness of the filled dental composites increased with increasing filler content, whereas the bending strength decreased. The compressive strength of the composites was improved, compared with the unfilled resin, but decreased with inreasing filler content.