Composite resins bulk fill

S. Flury, S. Hayoz, A. Peutzfeldt, J. HUsler, A. Lussi, Depth of cure of resin composites is the ISO 4049 method suitable for bulk fill materials Dent. Mater. 28 (2012) 521-528. 

Even in the apparently linear range, the response to stress should be considered as viscoelastic rather than elastic. Most polymers that behave in a linear, viscoelastic manner at small strains (< 1 %) behave in a nonlinear fashion at strains of the order of 1 % or more. However, in a fibrous composite, the resin may behave quite differently than it would in bulk. Stress and strain concentrations may exceed the limiting values for linearity in localized regions. Thus the composite may exhibit nonlinearity (Ashton, 1969 Trachte and DiBenedetto, 1968), as is the case with particulate-filled polymers (Section 12.1.2). Although nonlinearity at low strains is characteristic, Halpin and Pagano (1969) have predicted constitutive relations for isotropic linear viscoelastic systems, and verified their prediction using specimens of fiber-reinforced rubbers. 

The second, obvious application is studying polvmer-filler interactions in filled and reinforced composites. Some data are presented for wollastonite and quartz filled Bisphenol-A based and cycloaliphatic epoxies [6]. These data show, that Tg shifts observed by different relaxation methods (dielectric spectroscopy, DSC, thermomechanical measurements) are not necessarily the same (Table 1.), they depend on the effective frequency, changes in activation energy have also to be taken into account. Correlations between Tg shift and polymer adsorption can be understood using Lipatov s theory [7]. Positive Tg shift usually indicates strong adhesion, while negative Tg shift can be explained by the fact that the adsorbed polymer layer forms a looser structure than that of the bulk material. If both the neat resins and their composites are studied dielectrically, the origin of the low-... 

There are plenty of examples in the literature where plant-based fibers have been used for reinforcing or filling non-degradable resins such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), nylons, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), epoxies and polyurethanes (PU), etc. [6-15]. The bulk of plant-based fiber composites, however, are made using wood flour, a byproduct from saw mills, or wood fiber obtained from waste or used wood products, e.g. packaging pallets, old furniture, and construction wood scraps. These inexpensive... 

Compared to bulk materials, fiber-reinforced composites have already proven to exhibit superior properties in numerous applications. However, various desired combinations of properties, e.g., strong reinforcing effects at high optical transparency combined with electrical conductivity or reinforced micro-injection molded parts, cannot be achieved by traditional composites. The further improvement of the fracture toughness of resin matrices is another important task. Nanocomposites possess the potential to fill this existing gap. 

---