Resilient polymeric materials such as silicone elastomers are currently used for maxillofacial prostheses construction but the strength of these materials and their clinical performance need to be optimized with the addition of reinforcing fillers. This study investigates the effect of zirconia nanopowder addition on tear strength, tensile strength, elongation at break, Shore A hardness, surface roughness and cytotoxicity of VST-50 maxillofacial silicone. Silicone base was mixed with different amounts (1%, 2% and 3%) of zirconia nanopowder using a vacuum mixer. Silicone without filler was used as control for comparison. Scanning Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy were utilized to assess the efficiency of high-shear vacuum mixing as filler dispersion method and the surface topography, respectively. Both SEM and AFM images showed that the zirconia nanopowder were distributed fairly well within the polymer. Statistically, highly significant increase in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness with non-significant decrease in elongation at break and non-significant increase in surface roughness were seen with 1% and 2% groups. Whereas with 3% group, there was significant improvement in tear strength, tensile strength and hardness but there was significant undesirable decrease in elongation and increase in roughness. Cytotoxicity test revealed that the addition of zirconia nanopowder was nontoxic to Rat Embryonic Fibroblast (REF) cells and there was non-significant change in the cell viability of all study groups after 24- and 72-hours incubation periods. In conclusion, the addition of 2% by weight nano zirconia to VST-50 maxillofacial silicone could be beneficial in enhancing its performance.
Background. “Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)” is a biocompatible, high-strength polymer that is well-suited for use in dental applications due to its unique properties. However, achieving good adhesion between PEEK and hydrophilic materials such as dental adhesives or cement can be challenging. Also, this hydrophobicity may affect the use of PEEK as an implant material. Surface treatment or conditioning is often necessary to improve surface properties. The piranha solution is the treatment of choice to be explored for this purpose. Methods. PEEK disks of 10 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness were used in this study. Those samples were divided into five groups (each group has five samples). The first is the control group, in which no
... Show MoreA new pavement technology has been developed in Highway engineering: asphalt pavement production is less susceptible to oxidation and the consequent damages. The warm mix asphalt (WMA) is produced at a temperature of about (10-40) oC lower than the hot asphalt paving. This is done using one of the methods of producing a WMA. Although WMA's performance is rather good, according to previous studies, as it is less susceptible to oxidation, it is possible to modify some of its properties using different materials, including polymers. Waste tires of vehicles are one of the types of polymers because of their flexible properties. The production of HMA, WMA, and WMA modified with proportions of (1, 1.5, and 2%) of rub
... Show MoreA huge potential from researchers was presented for enhancing the nonlinear optical response for materials that interacts by light. In this work, we study the nonlinear optical response for chemically prepared nano- fluid of silver nanoparticles in de-ionized water with TSC (Tri-sodium citrate) protecting agent. By the means of self-defocusing technique and under CW 473 nm blue laser, the reflected diffraction pattern were observed and recorded by CCD camera. The results demonstrate that, the Ag nano-fluid shows a good third order nonlinear response and the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index was in the order of 10−7 cm2/W. We determine the maximum change of the nonlinear refractive index and the related phase shift for the mat
... Show MoreThis contribution investigates structural, electronic, and optical properties of cubic barium titanate (BaTiO3) perovskites using first-principles calculations of density functional theory (DFT). Generalized gradient approximations (GGA) alongside with PW91 functional have been implemented for the exchange–correlation potential. The obtained results display that BaTiO3 exhibits a band gap of 3.21 eV which agrees well with the previously experimental and theoretical literature. Interestingly, our results explore that when replacing Pd atom with Ba and Ti atoms at 0.125 content a clear decrease in the electronic band gap of 1.052 and 1.090 eV located within the visible range of electromagnetic wavelengths (EMW). Optical parameters such as a
... Show MoreAngiogenesis is important for tissue during normal physiological processes as well as in a number of diseases, including cancer. Drug resistance is one of the largest difficulties to antiangiogenesis therapy. Due to their lower cytotoxicity and stronger pharmacological advantage, phytochemical anticancer medications have a number of advantages over chemical chemotherapeutic drugs. In the current study, the effectiveness of AuNPs, AuNPs-GAL, and free galangin as an antiangiogenesis agent was evaluated. Different physicochemical and molecular approaches have been used including the characterization, cytotoxicity, scratch wound healing assay, and gene expression of VEGF and ERKI in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. Re
... Show MoreThe effect of 0.662MeV gamma radiation on the optical properties of the CdTe thin films was studied. 300nm thickness of CdTe samples were irradiated with doses (10, 20, 30,60krad) in room temperature. The absorption spectra for all the samples were recorded using UV- Visible spectrometer in order to calculate the energy gap, width of localized states and optical constants(refractive index, extinction coefficient, real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant). The optical energy gap was found to decrease from (1.53 to 1.48 eV), while the width of localized states increased from (1.34 to 1.49 eV) with the increasing of radiation dose. The behavior of energy gap with the irradiation dose makes the material a good candidate for dosimetry
... Show MoreIn This paper, CuO thin films having different thickness (250, 300 , 350 and 400) nm were deposited on glass substrates by thermal vacuum evaporator. The thermal oxidation of this evaporated film was done in heated glass at temperature (300 in air at one hour. The study of X-ray diffraction investigated all the exhibit polycrystalline nature with monoclinic crystal structure include uniformly grains. Thin film’s internal structure topographical and optical properties. Furthermore, the crystallization directions of CuO (35.54 , 38.70 ) can be clearly observed through an X-ray diffraction analysis XRD, Atomic Force Microscope AFM (topographic image) showed that the surface Characteristics , thin films crystals grew with increases in either
... Show MoreThe optical properties for the components CuIn(SexTe1-x)2 thin films with both values of selenium content (x) [0.4 and 0.6] are studied. The films have been prepared by the vacuum thermal evaporation method with thickness of (250±5nm) on glass substrates. From the transmittance and absorbance spectra within the range of wavelength (400-900)nm, we determined the forbidden optical energy gap (Egopt) and the constant (B). From the studyingthe relation between absorption coefficient (α) photon energy, we determined the tails width inside the energy gap.
The results showed that the optical transition is direct; we also found that the optical energy gap increases with annealing temperature and selenium content (x). However, the width of l
Recently, many materials have shown that they can be used as alternatives to chemicals materials in order to be used to improve the properties of drilling fluids. Some of these materials are banana peels and corn cobs which both are considered environmentally- friendly materials. The results of the X-ray diffraction examination have proved that the main components of these materials are cellulose and hemicellulose, which contribute greatly to the increasing of the effectiveness of these two materials. Due to their distinct composition, these two materials have improved the rheological properties (plastic viscosity and yield point) and reduced the filtration of the drilling fluids to a large extent. The addition rates used for each o
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