Assessment of decontamination methods as pretreatment of silanization of composite glass fillers.

In terms of mechanical properties and durability, the surface of glass fillers should be decontaminated in order to optimize the silanization process for the production of resin composites. The objective of this study was to evaluate the decontamination efficiency of 18 cleaning methods on glass fillers as pretreatment of silane coupling. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that SiO(2) boiled with a 5% sodium peroxodisulfate aqueous solution for 15 min, followed by ultrasonic rinsing with acetone for 30 min was most effective among all the decontamination methods investigated. In addition, nano-indentation measurements on SiO(2) treated by the above-mentioned method revealed that the surface was not significantly weakened as compared to untreated SiO(2). The results of this study should lead to an improved filler-matrix coupling and thus contribute to the development of better wear and fatigue-resistant composites. Therefore, sodium peroxodisulfate is proposed as a presilanization filler decontamination step in the production process of resin composites.