Studies on electrical and thermal properties of dental glass ionomer cement

Abstract

A commercially available dental Glass Ionomer Cement (GIC) was studied after setting at room temperature (300 K) to understand its DC electrical conductivity , dielectric and thermal properties. The dental GIC's are supposed to have free mobile charge carriers like F-ions. Interestingly this material loses its conductivity above 80˚C and behaves like a non-polar substance. The frequency dependent dielectric studies also indicate the loss of mobile charge carriers in the samples annealed at 80˚C. The DSC and TGA studies indicate that the material loses H 2 O exother-mically at 100˚C. This is attributed to the onset of a secondary setting reaction.