Background and Aims: It is very important and practical to make machinable blocks with the ability to maintain the edge and at the same time have sufficient hardness for chewing. One of the most important groups of materials for making dental crowns and veneers for dentistry by CAD-CAM is lithium disilicate ceramics such that extensive research is being conducted in the field of modifying their structure and properties. All-ceramic restorations enhance the beauty of teeth due to their closeness to the tooth color and transparency. At the same time, these materials also have high biocompatibility. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of hot-pressing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the lithium disilicate block fabrication.
Materials and Methods: The present laboratory study was conducted on the lithium disilicate blocks produced by powder metallurgy at Islamic Azad University, Khomeini Shahr Branch. In this regard, initially, the raw materials (including: Tetraethyl orthosilicate, Lithium nitrate, Triethyl phosphate, potassium nitrate) were processed by sol-gel method and the resulting frit (the glassy state of a ceramic) was crushed by a ceramic mortar. Then, the 3 groups of samples (n=3) were subjected to the hot-pressing at different temperatures of 750 and 900 °C for 60 minutes at a constant pressure of 200 kPa. Subsequently, the microstructure and elemental phases of lithium silicate samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Statistical analysis of the results was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: X-ray diffraction results on the resulting powder before hot pressing showed the formation of a glass phase with lithium metasilicate and after hot pressing, the formation of a lithium disilicate phase. The results also showed that in all samples, the lithium disilicate phase was formed and had some porosity. In addition, with increasing the pressing temperature, the size of lithium disilicate particles increased. However, with increasing the hot-pressing temperature from 750 to 900°C, the amount of porosity decreased from about 23% to 20%.
Conclusion: The hot-pressing temperature had a significant effect on the microstructure and phases present in the produced ferrite sample. It was concluded that by changing the hot-pressing temperature, the microstructure and consequently the properties of the lithium disilicate blocks can be modified to achieve improved properties for dentistry applications.
