title: New acrylic resin composite with improved thermal diffusivity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies have shown that physical characteristics of denture base materials may affect patient acceptance of denture prostheses by altering sensory experience of food during mastication. Thermal diffusivity is one material property that has been cited as being important in determining gustatory response, with denture base acrylic resins having low thermal diffusivity compared with denture base metal alloys.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study prepared and characterized experimental acrylic resin composite material with increased thermal diffusivity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sapphire (Al2O3) whiskers were added to conventional denture base acrylic resin during processing to achieve loadings of 9.35% and 15% by volume. Cylindrical test specimens containing an embedded thermocouple were used to determine thermal diffusivity over a physiologic temperature range (0 degree to 70 degrees C).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thermal diffusivities of the sapphire containing composites were found to be significantly higher than the unmodified acrylic resin. Thermal diffusivity was found to increase in proportion to the volume percentage of sapphire filler, which suggested that the high aspect ratio ceramic particles formed a pathway for heat conduction through the insulating polymer matrix.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The thermal diffusivity of denture base acrylic resin was increased by the addition of thermally conducting sapphire whiskers.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Materials, Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill., USA.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Messersmith
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Obrez
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lindberg
mesh_terms: D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000537:Aluminum Oxide; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003819:Denture Bases; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013649:Taste; D013814:Thermal Conductivity
chemical_list: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D000537:Aluminum Oxide