Influence of the rubber crosslinking density of a core-shell structure modifier on the properties of toughened poly(methyl methacrylate)

Study of the radical polymerization mechanism and its application in the preparation of high-performance PMMA by reactive extrusion

In this study, the mechanism of radical polymerization was further explored by pre-dissolving different polymers and studying the kinetics of the bulk polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) under shear-free conditions. Based on the analysis of the conversion and absolute molecular weight, it was found that, contrary to the shearing effect, the inert polymer with viscosity was the key factor to preventing the mutual termination of radical active species and reducing the termination rate constant k _t. Therefore, pre-dissolving the polymer could increase the polymerization rate and molecular weight of the system simultaneously, making the polymerization system enter the automatic acceleration zone faster and greatly reducing the generation of small molecular weight polymers, leading to a narrower molecular weight distribution. When the system entered the auto-acceleration zone, k _t decreased rapidly and greatly and entered the second steady-state polymerization stage. Then, with the increase in the polymerization conversion, the molecular weight gradually increased, while the polymerization rate gradually decreased. In shear-free bulk polymerization systems, k _t can be minimized and radical lifetimes maximized, but the polymerization system is at best a long-lived polymerization rather than a living polymerization. On this basis, by using MMA to pre-dissolve ultrahigh molecular weight PMMA and core-shell particles (CSR), the mechanical properties and heat resistance of the PMMA with pre-dissolved polymer obtained by reactive extrusion polymerization were better than for pure PMMA obtained under the same conditions. Compared with pure PMMA, the flexural strength and impact strength of PMMA with pre-dissolved CSR were up to 166.2% and 230.5%. With the same quality of CSR, the same two mechanical properties of the samples obtained by the blending method were just improved by 29.0% and 20.4%. This was closely related to the distribution of CSR in the pre-dissolved PMMA-CSR matrix with a distribution of spherical single particles 200-300 nm in diameter, which enabled PMMA-CSR to exhibit a high degree of transparency. This one-step process for realizing PMMA polymerization and high performance shows extremely high industrial application prospects.

Synthesis and characterization of core-shell nanoparticles and their application in dental resins

The aim of this study was to synthesize acrylic core-shell particles and silica-loaded core-shell hybrid particles through emulsion polymerization. Also this work examined the influence of synthesized nanoparticles loading in a Bis-GMA/TEGDMA resin matrix on some mechanical properties of the dental composite resins. Core-shell particles consisting of polybutyl acrylate (PBA) rubbery core and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)/polystyrene (PS) shell were synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization. For preparing the core-shell hybrid particles, first silica particles with diameters of about 68 nm were synthesized based on the Stöber process. Then the surface of silica particles was treated with ɣ-MPS. Afterwards, polymeric shell was coated on silica nanoparticles through emulsion polymerization. The morphology of core-shell particles was examined by SEM/TEM. Mechanical properties (fracture toughness, flexural strength and flexural modulus) of the photo-cured Bis-GMA/TEGDMA dental resins/composites filled with different mass fractions of synthesized nanoparticles were tested, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the statistical analysis of the acquired data. Formation of glassy shell on PBA core in core-shell particles, grafting of ɣ -MPS onto the silica particles and encapsulation of modified silica by polymeric shell in core-shell hybrid particles were confirmed using various analytical techniques. The results of mechanical tests showed that fracture toughness of Bis-GMA/TEGDMA dental resins improved about 35% by the inclusion of 5 wt% silica-loaded core-shell hybrid particles with little effect on flexural strength. This study shows that incorporation of proper amount of hybrid core-shell particles in dental composites can improve their fracture toughness and thus may extend their service life.