The preparation of dental glass-ceramic composites with controlled fraction of leucite crystals

This work is dealing with synthesis of leucite powder, which can be used for the preparation of dental glassceramic composites by subsequent thermal treatment. Newly developed procedure is based on preparation of dental raw material as a mixture of two separate compounds: the crystalline leucite powder prepared at relatively low temperature and a commercial matrix powder.Hydrothermal synthesis of tetragonal leucite particles (KAlSi2O6) with the average size of about 3 μm was developed in our laboratory. The leucite dental raw material was prepared by mixing of 20 wt.% of synthetic tetragonal leucite with commercial matrix. Dental composites were prepared from the dental raw material by uniaxial pressing and firing up to 960°C. Dilatometric measurements confirmed that the coefficient of thermal expansion increased by 32% when 20 wt.% of the tetragonal leucite was added into the basic matrix. In addition, it was showed that the synthesized leucite powder was suitable for the preparation of leucite composites with controlled coefficient of thermal expansion. High value of the thermal expansion coefficient enables application of prepared composite in metal-ceramics restorations