Mechanical Properties Study of Plasma Treated Epoxy-Base Post in Dual-Material Systems

Improvement of adhesion between epoxy based post and composite resin core materials by low temperature plasma is an on-going dental material development. To systematically investigate the effects of surface change on the material’s chemical and mechanical properties, three series of two component materials, epoxy/urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA), epoxy/polyethylene (PE), and epoxy/poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), were compared with dental epoxy based post/composite resin core. Each dual-materials system was modeled at an atomistic level. A molecular dynamics (MD) method with COMPASS force field was employed to simulate the most probable functionalization and the materials physical properties changes. Material surface modification was modeled and optimized using quantum calculations based on experimental characterization. To validate calculation results, the effect of plasma treatment on the mechanical properties of the dental post materials were examined by tensile pull out test.