Abstract
The aim of the present paper was to investigate the chemical corrosion in various solutions, of a commercial resin based restorative nano-filled composite. 20 samples of a nanocomposite Filtek Supreme XT (3M ESPE) were immersed for 30 days in Ringer (physiological solution), Fusayama artificial saliva, and Afnor artificial saliva. After that, they were examined by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It resulted that the corrosion is mainly due to the pitting, micrometric holes being observed. Also, preferred directions of corrosion resulted, as consequence of micro-scratches formation during the samples preparation. The oxygen content generally increased due to the oxides formation, while carbon, silicon and zirconium normalized atomic percents decreased, showing the corrosion both of the polymeric matrix and of the filler particles. Micro-holes size statistics revealed quantitatively the degree of corrosion and agrees well with the changes of chemical composition. Keywords: nanofilled composite, pitting corrosion, artificial saliva