Technical Surfactant Effect on Precipitation Method of Glutinous Rice Flour Filler Size Reduction

Abstract

Most of the materials used in dentistry contain fillers as part of their composition to modify their chemical and mechanical properties. Filler size reduction needs economic and environmentally friendly materials to control the viscosity on a simple precipitation method using surfactant. Technical surfactants with more affordable prices also could develop filler size reduction. The study aims to analyse different technical surfactant effects on the glutinous rice flour precipitation method of filler size reduction used as an organic filler in dental applications. Precipitation technique is used by preparing the mixture by adding glutinous rice solution of bi-distilled water or sodium hydroxide with different 4% technical surfactant (Span 80 and Tween 80) dropwise to absolute ethanol. Samples were centrifuged at 3000 and 6000 rpm, then washed and characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). As the result of this study, a size reduction of 714.8 nm with spherical and rod-like shapes could be generated from glutinous rice flour with the addition of Span 80 technical surfactant in 3000 rpm centrifugation speed for organic filler materials using sodium hydroxide solvent. This study suggested an opportunity for the country’s available source improvement in determining dental materials viscosity and its reinforcement.