Nanoparticles with Potential Remineralizing and Anti-bacterial Properties for Use in Dental Adhesives
Abstract
Caries is regarded as one of the primary diseases affecting the human teeth and is the cause of most dental restorations. The estimated cost of replacing failed restorations alone is well over a billion dollars annually in the US. Many advancements in the field of dental restorations and caries inhibition are being pursued in the laboratory and the clinic. Many of these aim to provide remineralizing agents and antibacterial agents that can improve integration of the tooth and restoration, and that can inhibit recurrent caries, respectively. This work focuses on the synthesis of silver/calcium phosphate composite nanoparticles using a spray pyrolysis method. This approach can produce unique structures with small silver nanoparticles embedded in larger amorphous calcium phosphate nanoparticles. We have also studied the release of ions from these nanoparticles and from a dental adhesive formulation containing them. Release of Ag+ ions is expected to produce antibacterial effects, while release of Ca2+ and phosphate ions can promote tooth remineralization. The spray pyrolysis reactor setup employs a 3-jet atomizer, capable of producing droplets in the size range of 200 nm to 2 microm. An aerosol of these droplets, which contain silver and calcium phosphate precursors flows through a tube furnace which is heated to the desired temperature to evaporate the solvent and convert the dissolved ions into solid product particles. The synthesized particles were collected using a polymeric filter installed at the end of the reaction zone with nitrogen acting as a quench gas to cool the product aerosol before product collection. The synthesized particles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) combined with Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The release of silver, calcium, and phosphate ions was studied over a period of 1 month using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to quantify the amount of material released from a dental adhesive formulation containing the composite nanoparticles.
- Publication:
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Masters Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018MsT.........16K
- Keywords:
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- Chemical engineering;Nanotechnology;Dentistry