The effect of adding silica nanoparticles on hardness and physicomechanical properties of type4 dental stone

Abstract

Introduction: The suitable material for the preparation of dental stone should be strong enough and easy to use in the laboratory. Hardness and abrasion resistance are important criteria for weaving and casting, checking the complete sitting of the prosthesis and its finishing. Mineral filler particles are used to improve the mechanical properties of dental materials. A recent change and innovation in mineral fillers have been the use of nanotechnology, which aims to improve the mechanical properties of dental materials. In this study, the effect of adding silica nanoparticles (silicon dioxide) with 0.5, 1 and 2% percentages on the physicochemical properties and hardness of type 4 dental stone was studied. Materials and Methods: In this study, silica nanoparticles (silicon dioxide) were added to stone at 0.5, 1 and 2% percentages. Stone without silica nanoparticles was used as a control. The samples were divided into 40 groups in 4 groups. Then the prepared samples were examined for physicochemical properties and hardness. Fourier (FTIR) spectroscopy to investigate possible bonds and identify functional groups, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy to evaluate crystallinity, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study material morphology, and Ensuring uniform mixing of nanoparticles with nanoparticles die-stone was used. Also, a microhardness test was used to evaluate the hardness of the prepared materials. For this purpose, the Knoop Knop method was used. The results of the study were reported using descriptive statistical methods (mean ± standard deviation). One-way analysis of variance was used to evaluate the normality of the Shapiro-Wilk test and to compare the means in the study groups due to the normality of the data. Graph Pad version 9 software was used for data analysis. A probability value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: In this study, mixing nanoparticles with stone showed no effect on the functional groups, and no new interaction was observed between stone and silica nanoparticles. Peak water uptake by stone and silica nanoparticles was also observed in the FTIR peak. Also, this mixing did not show any effect on the morphology of die-stone particles. The crystallinity (change of crystalline state to amorphous or change of polymorphic type) for stone did not change due to the addition of nanoparticles. Regarding the effect of adding silica nanoparticles on stone, the results showed that the order of hardness was 2% for die-stone, 1% for die-stone, half a percent for die-stone, and finally nanoparticles without die-stone. The difference in hardness was significant for the prepared samples (P = 0.0002). Therefore, with increasing the number of nanoparticles in die-stone, the hardness increased significantly. Conclusion: There is a need to investigate other mechanical properties of the mixture of die-stone and silica nanoparticles. If the desired results are obtained, these nanoparticles can be added to their types to improve the properties of die-stones and increase their use in dentistry.