The effect of non-thermal argon plasma treatment on the surface properties and phase transformation of zirconia

Objective: Different surface treatments have been developed in recent years to increase the bond of zirconia ceramics with resin cements. One of them is non-thermal argon plasma treatment (NTAP). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of NTAP treatment at different times and at different flow rates on the surface properties and phase transformation of Y-TZP ceramics. Method: Y-TZP zirconia ceramic was used in this study. A total of 60 zirconia samples were prepared and randomly divided into 6 groups according to their surface treatments (n=10). Group 1; control group, Group 2; Argon plasma with a flow rate of 5 lt/min for 4 min, Group 3; Argon plasma with a flow rate of 8 lt/min for 4 min, Group 4; Argon plasma with a flow rate of 8 lt/min for 2 min, Group 5; Argon plasma for 5 l/min for 2 min, Group 6; sandblasting was applied. After surface treatments were applied to the samples, surface roughness measurements were made by profilometry. XRD test and SEM analysis were performed on one sample from each group. SPSS 23.0 program was used for statistical analysis. Statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: The highest value in terms of average surface roughness was found in Group 6 (Sandblasting) group, and as a result of the statistical analysis, it was observed that there was a significant difference in surface roughness between the sandblasting group and the control group, and between the sandblasting group and Group 2 and Group 5. According to the XRD result, the largest phase transformation was observed in the sandblasting group and then in Group 3. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, it was found that NTAP treatment increased the surface roughness, but this difference was not statistically significant. At the same time, it was observed that increasing the plasma application time and plasma flow rate increased the amount of phase transformation. Keywords: Y-TZP zirconia, non-thermal argon plasma, phase transformation, surface roughness