Maturation effects in glass-ionomer dental cements studied with X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy

Glass-ionomer cements are important dental materials. After initial hardening, maturation is a process crucial to the performance, occurring in about 6 weeks. Its mechanisms are unclear. We propose to investigate the relaxation dynamics at different times in two commercial cements, using x-ray photon
correlation spectroscopy, in order to clarify the link between the polyelectrolyte chain structure of the cement, the maturation and, ultimately, the time evolution of the cement performance