Inorganic composition and filler particles morphology of conventional and self-adhesive resin cements by SEM/EDX.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the inorganic components and morphology of filler particles of conventional and self-adhesive, dual-curing, resin luting cements. The main components were identified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy microanalysis (EDX), and filler particles were morphologically analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Four resin cements were used in this study: two conventional resin cements (RelyX ARC/3M ESPE and Clearfil Esthetic Cement/Kuraray Medical) and two self-adhesive resin cements (RelyX Unicem/3M ESPE and Clearfil SA Luting/Kuraray Medical). The materials (n = 5) were manipulated according to manufacturers' instructions, immersed in organic solvents to eliminate the organic phase and observed under SEM/EDX. Although EDX measurements showed high amount of silicon for all cements, differences in elemental composition of materials tested were identified. RelyX ARC showed spherical and irregular particles, whereas other cements presented only irregular filler shape. In general, self-adhesive cements contained higher filler size than conventional resin luting cements. The differences in inorganic components and filler particles were observed between categories of luting material and among them. All resin cements contain silicon, however, other components varied among them.