Investigation on the surface treatment of short S2-Glass fibre for dental composites

Abstract

Low aspect ratio S2-glass fibres serve as excellent load carrying members along with conventional fillers and additives. Untreated surface of the glass fibre results in poor bonding with the monomer reducing the strength, stiffness, stability and life of the structure. The current study focusses on analysing different methods of chemical surface treatments on glass fibre so as to augment the bonding strength with the monomer or polymer. A strategy for the surface treatment of glass fibres is introduced to improve the interfacial bonding between fibres and monomers. Enhanced dispersibility of low aspect ratio glass fibre in high viscosity resins will contribute to the generation of extremely stable local shear strength. Short glass fibres with the aspect ratio between 50-100 are cut and then treated in acid etching solutions which can produce an increased surface energy, surface roughness and dispersion ability. Uniformly distributed glass fibres within the resin will work as the key to reinforce the light cured dental composites that can be validated by analytical and experimental methods such as interfacial shear strength and flexural strength, thereby broadening the performance of dental restoration materials.