Magister Chirurgiae Dentium - MChD / The purpose of this study was to evaluate in vitro, the tensile bond strengths of some conventional and light cured resins, to study the effects of etchants on polished and ground enamel using the scanning electron microscope, and to the resin/etched enamel examlne electron interface by scanning microscopy This study was divided into: 1) laboratory tensile bond strength study of 'four composite resin materials. 2) a scanning electron microscopic study of the effect of four etchants on enamel. 3) the S.E.M. examination of the interfacial zone after the application of a demineralizing agent. The tensile bond strength study consisted of testing the bond strengths of two macrofilled and two microfilled resins in common use. These resins were applied directly to the etched enamel surfaces of extracted human teeth by utilizing newly developed perpex stubs which allowed a uniform surface area and for light curing of the resin. In this laboratory study the extracted teeth and the composite filled stubs were stressed to failure of the material bond to tooth in an Instron Machine. Bond strengths were recorded and tabulated in Newtons/mm2. The application of statistical analysis by Analysis of Variance and Duncans Multiple Range Test showed that there was a significant difference in the bond strengths of some of the four materials. The scanning electron microscope study consisted of an examination of etched enamel, either polished or ground using the etchants supplied by the two manufacturers i.e. 3 M Dental Company and J&J Dental Company. The interfacial zones of the resin/tooth interface systems were examined, using the two macrofilled and the two microfilled resijs in the stUdY.! Differences were found to exis.t at this zone.

<p>  </p> <p>Plastics play crucial rules in almost every aspect of life. Unique properties of plastics like chemical and light resistant, strong, moldable, and low cost make plastic materials useful in many aspects of our global society. However, largely relying on feedstock resources like fossil fuels, plastics production is not sustainable. Thus, plastic recycling could be an efficient alternative to save feedstock resources as well as to reduce production cost.</p> <p>Recently, a series of polymer materials synthesized via topochemical polymerization are considered as strong candidates for next generation recyclable plastics. It is well-known that topochemical polymerization has high efficiency and environment-friendly features, such as solvent-free and catalyst-free reaction conditions, high reaction yield without side reactions, and atom economy. Yet, there exist few studies on depolymerizing and recycling those polymers. A unique topochemically polymerizable polyindenedione derivative [2,2'-Bi-1H-indene]-1,1'-dione-3,3'-diyl dialkylcarboxylate (polyBIT) with rapid and quantitative depolymerization was discovered via breakage of elongated carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds with bond length of 1.57∼1.63 Å. The elongated C-C bonds have been proven theoretically and experimentally to have significantly lower bond dissociation energies than normal C-C bonds, and it is the major driving force to depolymerize polyBIT polymer single crystals. </p> <p>Different from most traditional polymers that can be dissolved or melt processed, topochemical polymer single crystals are not soluble in most common solvents due to their highly crystalline and ordered nature. This unique feature inhibited topochemical polymer crystals from practical applications. To convert needle-like polyBIT crystals into useful forms, I developed an ultrasonication method to break large polymer crystals into small fibers that can be uniformly suspended in organic solvents. Followed by vacuum filtration and heat press, polyBIT crystals can be processed into robust and freestanding polymer thin films. The processed thin films presented reasonable mechanical properties with Young’s modulus of over 600MPa and are stable under harsh conditions.</p> <p>Topochemical polymerization reactions require specific monomer packings before applying external stimuli, and a small change in monomer structure may completely alter the reactivity. Therefore, functionalizing monomer structures for topochemical reactions is quite challenging. In the polyBIT system, we attempted to functionalize BIT monomer with several linear and branched side chains. After preparing monomer crystals, only needle-like 1D monomers can be photopolymerized, while plate-like 2D monomer crystals became photostable. Introducing heteroatoms (such as oxygen, sulfur, bromine, chlorine) can induce different non-bonding interactions and interactions, which combined can push monomers away from one another to make them unreactive. Introducing branched side chains will also change the distances between two BIT monomers and leads to unreactive crystals when the branched side chain is too bulky (such as when tertbutyl group is on the end of side chain). Functionalizing side chains for polyBIT crystals can further tune the mechanical properties of the crystals: swapping end methyl group with a simple bromine atom can induce multiple intermolecular and interchain interaction including weak hydrogen bonding and C−H···Br interactions. These interactions bind all the polymer chains together to provide a strong 1D polymer fiber with elastic modulus over 10.6 GPa. These results suggest that the crystalline polymers synthesized from simple photochemistry and without expensive catalysts are promising for practical applications with complete materials circularity and wide range of structural and mechanical turnabilities.</p>

Herein, we present a quasi-living Negishi-type catalyst-transfer polycondensation of a zinc–organic DTSbased monomer which provides an access to narrowly distributed poly(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:20,30-d]silole (PDTS) with controlled molecular weight. The synthesis of well-defined all-conjugated diblock copolymers containing a PDTS block was accomplished by a combination of Kumada and Negishi catalyst-transfer polycondensations (KCTP and NCTP, respectively). Particularly, it was shown that living P3HT chains obtained by KCTP of magnesium–organic thiophene-based monomer efficiently initiate NCTP of zinc–organic DTS-based monomer. The purity of the DTS-based monomer was found to be a crucial factor for achieving a clean chain-growth polymerization process. A combination of physico-chemical methods was used to prove the success of the block copolymerization.