This proposal seeks to improve a patent-pending dental porcelain having strength and esthetic properties to be used as an all-ceramic restorative material where the traditional use of metal substrate will not be required. The procedure will involve characterization and optimization of the structure of the glass-ceramic (where Leucite is the crystalline phase) through controlled nucleation and growth during fritting. Five thermal treatments will be performed as per a confounding factorial design. The properties to be measured are modulus of rupture, compressive strength, thermal expansion and hardness. X-rays and image analysis will be used to determine the volume fraction and particle sizes of the Leucite phase. Two way analysis of variance and pairwise multiple comparisons will be used to determine the significant differences in volume fraction and particle sizes of the Leucite phase as a function of the thermal treatments. A correlation coefficient matrix and appropriate regression models will be developed to determine the statistical association between parameters and/or properties. Based on the data, an optimized processing technique will be developed for the manufacturing.
