3rd Year Dental Materials Science

Dr. Graham Cross

School of Physics and CRANN
SFI Nanoscience Building, Rm 1.5
http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/People/Graham.Cross/

Graham.Cross@tcd.ie

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Dental Materials - Graham Cross

Topics
Oct. 26: Basic metallurgy and alloys
Nov. 2: Properties of materials, thermals
TBA:
Mechanics of solids and fluids
Textbooks Further Reading
Applied Dental Materials 8 th Edition 1998, John F. McCabe, Angus W. G. Walls,
Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
Restorative Dental Materials 10th Edition 1997 Editor Robert G. Craig, Mosby Year
Book, Inc, St. Louis, USA
Notes on Dental Materials 6th Edition 1992 Editor E.C. Combe, Churchill Livingstone,
Edinburgh, UK
Phillips Science of Dental Materials 10th Edition 1996, Editor Kenneth J. Arusavice,
W.B. Saunders Company Philadelphia, USA
Dental Materials, Properties and Manipulation 6th Edition 1996 Editors Robert G. Craig,
William J. OBrien, John M. Power, Mosby Year Book, Inc, St. Louis, USA
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Dental Materials - Graham Cross

Metals and Alloys

What is a metal, what is an alloy?

Production and structure of metals and alloys
Mechanical properties

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What is a metal?
Characteristic properties of metals at room temperature:

Dense
Hard (exceptions include Mercury)
Ductile and Malleable
Good conductors of heat (and electricity)
Shiny, opaque

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Crystal structure

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Metals and Alloys

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Alloys
What is an alloy or alloy system?
Mixture of two or more metals
Alloys used in dentistry:
Steel alloy (iron and carbon)
- used for construction of instruments and wires in orthodontics
Gold alloys and Chromium alloys (Ni/Cr, Co/Cr)
- used in crowns, inlays and dental bases
Amalgam (mercury alloy)
- used in filling material since mid 18th Century
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Cooling of a molten metal

Liquid

Latent heat

Solidifying
Solid

Thermodynamic phase change

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Structure on solidification

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Grain size and structure

Why?
The strength of materials is governed by propagation of defects.
A grain boundary is a barrier to defect propagation.
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Plasticity and structural strength

Plastic yield:

Shear Stress

Irreversible failure
behaviour of a solid that
occurs above a special shear
stress threshold called the
yield stress: yield

yield

Limit of plasticity: Ductility

followed by fracture

Strain

Ductility

Remember: Shear stress causes plasticity leading to a change of shape of an object

For structural integrity, the yield (plastic) strength must be as high as possible.
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Shearing a solid: Plastic flow

Energy

solid

Position

sheared solid
Energy

Stress, not temperature,

increases the energy level
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Position

One line of atoms changes neighbours

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Shearing a cubic crystal

Imagine this is a small grain
in the metal:

Cubic atomic lattice

(Simplified schematic)
Plastic shear strain

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Creating a dislocation

Cubic atomic lattice

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Dislocation with core

and distorted lattice

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Motion of a crystal dislocation

Dislocation
Nucleation

One bond is broken, and

then one bond is traded as
the dislocation glides
through the material
This is much easier than
breaking all the bonds at
once.

Dislocation glide direction:

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Why small grains are stronger

Dislocations cannot glide across grain boundaries: they are blocked

More grain boundaries in small grain metals higher strength.

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Factors affecting grain size

Large grains

Small grains

, swaging
Fibrous
Equiaxed
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Factors affecting grain size (cont.)

3. Recrystallization (softening heat treatment)
- Heat cold worked material above its recrystallization
temperature to alter grain structure.
- Reverts to equiaxed form.
4. Grain growth
- If overheated or heated for very long grains begin to grow.
- Coarse grain structure.
5. Stress relief by mild annealing
- Internal stresses can cause cracking or distortion.
- Lower temperature heat treatment than recrystallization.
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Heat treatment and annealing

Heat

Critical temperature, the recrystallization temperature, above which the

structure of the metal changes by thermal energy.
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Cold working a metal

Work hardening: A property change resulting from cold working
- Crystals become fibrous, and full of inter-locking dislocations
- Increase hardness, strength (increased yield stress)
- Reduces ductility
- This will eventually lead to fracture
In dentistry:
Formation of wires by pushing metal or alloy through die
holes
Bending of wires and clasps during appliance
construction or alteration
Swaging of stainless steel denture bases
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Practical considerations
Cooling should be carried out quickly if:
- Fine grain structure strength and hardness is important
Cold working also increases strength and hardness
- But, it reduces ductility i.e. metal becomes brittle
Can remove internal stresses of cold worked material: Annealing
Heating to recrystallization temp. undoes work hardening
- Initially produces fine grain structure
- Extended heating time, however, results in grain growth
- Slow cooling promotes grain growth
- Use to lower strength and hardness (ie. soften, malleable)
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Recap of metal properties

Properties of metals depend critically upon:
Composition
Thermal treatment
Mechanical treatment
All of this applies to alloys, but
Mechanical properties of alloys can be very different from
properties of component metals:
Eg. Consider an alloy containing 75% Au and 25% Cu:
Alloy has higher tensile strength, greater than either Au or Cu!
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Mechanical strength of alloys

Mechanical strength:
Solution hardening in GoldCopper system
Cooled rapidly from 450C:
Disordered substitutional solid solution
Cu or Au (random)
Au
Cu

(fcc)

Slow cooling
Ordered substitutional solid solution

Either way, dislocation glide under stress is inhibited:

Increase strength, hardness, reduce ductility
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Next time

General properties of materials including

thermal properties
Mechanical properties

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