Non-Thermal Atmospheric Plasma:Can it Be Taken as a Common Solution for the Surface Treatment of Dental Materials?

This study aimed to evaluate the surface roughness and wetting properties of various dental prosthetic materials after different durations of non-thermal atmospheric plasma（NTAP）treatment.One hundred and sixty discs of titanium（Ti）（n：40）,cobalt chromium（Co-Cr）（n：40）,yttrium stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals（Y-TZP）（n：40）and polymethylmethacrylate（PMMA）（n：40）materials were machined and smoothed with silicon carbide papers.The surface roughness was evaluated in a control group and in groups with different plasma exposure times [1-3-5 s].The average surface roughness（Ra）and contact angle（CA）measurements were recorded via an atomic force microscope（AFM）and tensiometer,respectively.Surface changes were examined with a scanning electron microscope（SEM）.Data were analyzed with two-way analysis of variance（ANOVA）and the Tukey HSD test α=0.05）.According to the results,the NTAP surface treatment significantly affected the roughness and wettability properties（P 〈 0.05）.SEM images reveal that more grooves were present in the NTAP groups.With an increase in the NTAP application time,an apparent increment was observed for Ra,except in the PMMA group,and a remarkable reduction in CA was observed in all groups.It is concluded that the NTAP technology could enhance the roughening and wetting performance of various dental materials.

Synergistic Effect of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Pre-Treatment on Alkaline Etching of Polyethylene Terephthalate Fabrics and Films

Dyeing of PET materials by traditional methods presents several problems.Plasma technology has received enormous attention as a solution for the environmental problems related with textile surface modifications,and there has been a rapid development and commercialization of plasma technology over the past decade.In this work,the synergistic effect of atmospheric pressure plasma on alkaline etching and deep coloring of dyeing properties on polyethylene terephthalate（PET）fabrics and films was investigated.The topographical changes of the PET surface were investigated by atomic force microscopy（AFM）images,which revealed a smooth surface morphology of the untreated sample whereas a high surface roughness for the plasma and/or alkaline treated samples.The effects of atmospheric pressure plasma on alkaline etching of the structure and properties of PET were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry（DSC）,the main objective of performing DSC was to investigate the effect of the plasma pre-treatment on the T_g and T_m.Using a tensile strength tester YG065 H and following a standard procedure the maximum force and elongation at maximum force of PET materials was investigated.Oxygen and argon plasma pre-treatment was found to increase the PET fabric weight loss rate.The color strength of PET fabrics was increased by various plasma pre-treatment times.The penetration of plasma and alkaline reactive species deep into the PET structure results in better dyeability and leaves a significant effect on the K/S values of the plasma pre-treated PET.It indicated that plasma pre-treatment has a great synergistic effect with the alkaline treatment of PET.