This study intends to obtain a kind of polymer-infiltrated ceramic-network (PICN) composite with improved performance for dental restoration. Porous ceramic network was prepared via compressing feldspar powders, followed by resin infiltration using Bis-GMA/TEGDMA or UDMA/TEGDMA mixtures to obtain PICN composites after thermocuring. The sintering parameters (temperature, duration) for the formation of feldspathic network with proper porosity were investigated. The ratios of resin mixtures were adjusted to optimize the infiltration. Comprehensive characterizations were conducted on the porosity and the shrinkage of preformed ceramic-networks, the viscosity of resin mixtures and their infiltration into the ceramic networks, as well as, flexural properties, Vickers hardness and wear resistance of the final PICN composites. It turned out that the PICN composite prepared from Bis-GMA/TEGDMA (6:4) achieved the best performance among all the samples, which is expected to be a suitable material for computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) dental restorative applications.
Keywords: Bis-GMA; Feldspar; Polymer-infiltrated ceramic-network; TEGDMA; UDMA.