X — ray powder diffraction study of leucite crystallisation

Abstract

Leucite based ceramic materials are being a subject of an extensive scientific interest in recent years, especially in a field of dental prosthesis. Ceramic structures are used to replace missing teeth, tooth structure lost to disease or trauma, and unaesthetic, but otherwise healthy, tooth enamel [1]. The significant attributes of dental ceramics are its aesthetical (it can be coloured to closely resemble teeth it must replace) and chemical (stability toward oral flora and corrosive components of foods and saliva) qualities. The presence of leucite, exhibiting high values of a thermal expansion coefficient, in a porcelain matrix enables its fusion to metal reinforcement and so to achieve high mechanical strength. In addition in last few years it was hypothesized that leucite thanks to its phasetransition behaviour could potentially toughen leucite-glass (porcelain) systems and so lead to dental materials having high fracture toughness [2].