Fabrication and mechanical properties of biomimetic nacre-like ceramic/polymer composites for chairside CAD/CAM dental restorations

Sana Algharaibeh; Hongbo Wan; Rami Al-Fodeh; Anthony J Ireland; Dongsheng Zhang; Bo Su

doi:10.1016/j.dental.2021.10.016

Fabrication and mechanical properties of biomimetic nacre-like ceramic/polymer composites for chairside CAD/CAM dental restorations

Dent Mater. 2022 Jan;38(1):121-132. doi: 10.1016/j.dental.2021.10.016. Epub 2021 Nov 24.

Authors

Sana Algharaibeh¹, Hongbo Wan², Rami Al-Fodeh³, Anthony J Ireland², Dongsheng Zhang⁴, Bo Su⁵

Affiliations

¹ Biomaterials Engineering Group (bioMEG), Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, UK; Prosthodontics Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. Electronic address: sana.algharaibeh@yahoo.com.
² Biomaterials Engineering Group (bioMEG), Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, UK.
³ Prosthodontics Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan.
⁴ Department of Mechanics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, PR China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai 200072, PR China.
⁵ Biomaterials Engineering Group (bioMEG), Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, UK. Electronic address: b.su@bristol.ac.uk.

PMID: 34836698
DOI: 10.1016/j.dental.2021.10.016

Abstract

Objective: To fabricate and characterise a novel chairside CAD/CAM composite dental materials. These composites have a nacre-like anisotropic microstructure, consisting of highly aligned ceramic scaffolds infiltrated with polymer.

Method: Bi-directional freeze casting of alumina ceramic suspension was used to fabricate highly aligned ceramic scaffolds that were subsequently uniaxially pressed to control the ceramic volume fraction and then infiltrated with UDMA/TEGDMA polymer. The produced composites were subjected to mechanical testing, namely three-point bending, hardness and fracture toughness tests.

Results: Novel biomimetic ceramic/polymer composites (BCPCs) were fabricated with nacre-like brick and mortar anisotropic microstructure. The mechanical properties were dependent on the ceramic volume fraction. The 70 vol% BCPC had sufficient flexural strength (135.08-145.77 MPa), stiffness (57.75-61.22 GPa) and hardness (3.07-3.36 GPa) and showed remarkable fracture resistance with K_IC value of (2.54 MPa m^1/2).

Significant: Novel biomimetic ceramic/polymer composites show great potential as the next generation of CAD/CAM dental materials, as they closely resemble the combined mechanical properties of dentine and enamel.

Keywords: Biomimetic; Brick and mortar microstructure; CAD/CAM; Ceramic; Composite; Dental materials; Flexural strength; Fracture toughness; Nacre-like; Polymer.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomimetics
Ceramics / chemistry
Computer-Aided Design
Materials Testing
Nacre*
Polymers / chemistry

Substances

Nacre
Polymers

Grants and funding

WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom