Investigation on the physical-mechanical properties of dental resin composites reinforced with novel bimodal silica nanostructures

The results of degree of conversion (a), and polymerization shrinkage (b) of representative RBC 0-60 (SiO2 NPs:SiO2 NCs = 0:60, wt/wt), RBC 50-20 (SiO2 NPs:SiO2 NCs = 50:20, wt/wt), commercial Esthet-X and Z350 XT were presented in the graphical abstract (*p < 0.01, compared with RBC 0-60; (−) p > 0.01, compared with Esthet-X; (+) p < 0.01, compared with Esthet-X; #p > 0.01, compared with Z350 XT). It could be observed that the employment of bimodal silica nanostructures consisting of SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) and SiO2 nanoclusters (SiO2 NCs) was a facile and effective gateway to design resin-based composites (RBCs) with enhanced physical-mechanical properties, especially for RBC 50-20 with the improved degree of conversion and the reduced polymerization shrinkage, compared with those of RBC 0-60 reinforced with SiO2 NCs alone, which was comparable with commercial Esthet-X and Z350 XT.