EU-Low Shrinkage Mat f Dental - DentalOpt - Low Shrinkage Materials for Dental and Ophthalmic Applications

New materials shall be developed for use in dentistry or optics. The main demands are low shrinkage during processing and biocompatibility; in dentistry mechanical hardness and good optical quality (almost colourless, high cohesion and adhesion power) are most prominent, while for bifocal lenses birefringence is the additional demand. These properties shall be realized with new plastic materials produced by curing via radical ring opening reactions or ring opening metathesis reactions initiated by new transition metal complexes. Liquid crystalline starting materials play an important role. By incorporating fluorinated polymers, better results are expected (less plaque adsorption, zero shrinkage, caries resistance); bi- or multifocal contact lenses shall be made from hard or soft materials, mesogenes yield birefringence, the fluorinated groups control the diffusivity. Lab synthesis, up-scaling and physical testing are provided.