Mechanical and biocompatible properties of polymer-infiltrated-ceramic-network materials for dental restoration

Dental restorative materials with high mechanical properties and biocompatible performances are promising. In this work, polymer-infiltrated-ceramic-network materials (PICNs) were fabricated via infiltrating polymerizable monomers into porous ceramic networks and incorporated with hydroxyapatite nano-powders. Our results revealed that the flexural strength can be enhanced up to 157.32 MPa, and elastic modulus and Vickers hardness can be achieved up to 19.4 and 1.31 GPa, respectively, which are comparable with the commercial computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) blocks. Additionally, the adhesion and spreading of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) on the surface of such materials can be improved by adding hydroxyapatite, which results in good biocompatibility. Such PICNs are potential applicants for their application in the dental restoration.