Abstract
SilverfilTM (Silverfil dental Products, Malaysia) is a commercially available dental amalgam which is based on silver (Ag) and mercury (Hg) only. The objective of this study was to determine the structural state and chemical composition of the starting materials and presence of mercury in the resulting amalgam. All the starting materials of the Silverfil amalgam were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM-EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Analysis using FESEM depicts that amalgam (Ag2Hg3) clusters were formed as a matrix consisting of crystalline solid. The EDX analysis showed that all the chemical composition of the starting materials consists of Ag and Hg only. The XRD analysis also revealed that Ag and Hg form as isometric (cubic)-hexoctahedral with unit cells of 10.06 Å. This value is similar to a naturally occurring mineral called “Moschellandsbergite” which is found in the district of Landsberg in Germany. The XPS analysis showed that there was no free mercury (Hg0) present in the starting material. When the resulting amalgam was analysed, the binding energy of Hg (4f) photoelectron peaks were at 101 eV and 100.3 eV confirming the presence of bonded mercury with silver alloy (Ag2Hg3). These studies show that there is no free mercury present in Silverfil amalgam.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) for the research, by way of financial support, grant no: 13-02-03-3088 and UKM-PTSN 015-210.
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Ramasindarum, C., Balakrishnan, V., Abu Kasim, N.H., Yarmo, M.A. (2013). Structural and Compositional Characterization of Silverfil Amalgam. In: Öchsner, A., da Silva, L., Altenbach, H. (eds) Characterization and Development of Biosystems and Biomaterials. Advanced Structured Materials, vol 29. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31470-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31470-4_10
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