Study of filling material of dental composites: an analytical approach using radio-activation

The aim of this study is to carry out elemental analyses of dental composites acquired from different producers using photoactivation analysis (PAA). High energy electrons produced by an electron linear accelerator are absorbed by a tungsten disk (Bremsstrahlung converter) thereby producing high energy X-rays (bremsstrahlung). The dental composite materials under study were exposed to the bremsstrahlung radiation whereby radionuclides were produced through photonuclear reactions. Their radioactivities were measured using high resolution semiconductor spectrometers equipped with high purity germanium detectors (HPGe). The spectra were analysed using appropriate computer software. As a result, photonuclear reactions of 12 stable elements were detected in different dental composite species, and the elemental concentrations were calculated. For comparison, the dental composites were also investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF). Various sizes and shapes of dental composites were observed using SEM. However, contents of dental composites, e.g. Mg, Ni, Ba and Sr were obtained by PAA whilst C, O, Al, S, Ba and Sr were detected by EDXRF spectrometry. The results for Ba and Sr obtained using the two techniques show considerable difference.