Temperature and curing time affect composite sorption and solubility

Objective: this study evaluated the effect of temperature and curing time on composite sorption and solubility. material and methods: seventy five specimens (8x2 mm) were prepared using a commercial composite resin (ice,sdi). three temperatures (10°c,25°c and 60°c) and five curing times (5 s,10 s,20 s,40 s and 60 s) were evaluated. the specimens were weighed on an analytical balance three times: a: before storage (m1); b: 7 days after storage (m2); c: 7 days after storage plus 1 day of drying (m3). the storage solution consisted of 75% alcohol/25% water. sorption and solubility were calculated using these three weights and specimen dimensions. the data were analyzed using the kruskal-wallis and mann-whitney u tests (a=5%). results: the results showed that time,temperature and their interaction influenced the sorption and solubility of the composite (p<0.05). at 60°c,the composite sorption showed an inverse relationship with the curing time (p<0.05). the composite cured for 5 s showed higher sorption for the 40 s or 60 s curing times when compared with all temperatures (p<0.05). curing times of 20 s and 40 s showed similar sorption data for all temperatures (p>0.05). the 60°c composite temperature led to lower values of sorption for all curing times when compared with the 10°c temperature (p<0.05). the same results were found when comparing 10°c and 25°c (p<0.05),except that the 20 s and 40 s curing times behaved similarly (p>0.05). solubility was similar at 40 s and 60 s for all temperatures (p>0.05),but was higher at 10°c than at 60°c for all curing times (p<0.05). when the composite was cured at 25°c,similar solubility values were found when comparing the 5 s and 10 s or 20 s and 40 s curing times (p>0.05). conclusion: in conclusion,higher temperatures or longer curing times led to lower sorption and solubility values for the composite tested; however,this trend was only significant in specific combinations of temperature and curing times.