Improving the Mechanical Properties of Conventional Glass Ionomer Cement Through Using 4-Pentenoic Acid Modified Polycarboxylic Acid (PCA)

Abstract

With the aim to enhance the mechanical properties of conversional glass ionomer cements (GICs), 4-pentenoic acid (PA) was used as a co-monomer to synthesize a new kind of polycarboxylic acid (PCA) through free radical polymerization with acrylic acid (AA) and itaconic acid (IA). The chemical structures of the PCA were confirmed by 1H-NMR and FT-IR. Number average molecular weights (Mn) and glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the synthesized PCA were investigated and the results showed that the Mn and Tg were in a trend of decreasing with increasing of the PA content in the raw materials. The synthesized PCA was dissolved in water with a mass ratio of 50 wt.% to prepare the liquid part of the GIC, and then mixed with glass powders of commercial GIC Fuji IX to prepare the GICs samples. The results of mechanical tests showed that the PCA with 5 wt% of 4-pentenoic acid as a comonomer showed the best comprehensive mechanical properties.