METALS & ALLOYS

IN DENTISTRY

Dr Thulfiqar
Dental Material
Block 3
Metallurgy is
 a domain of material science
 that studies the physical and chemical behavior of
metallic elements, their inter-metallic compound,
and their compounds, which are called alloys.
 It is also the technology of metals: the way in
which science is applied to their practical use.

Georg Agricola, author of De re metallica, an

important early book on metal extraction
 INTRODUCTION
• Steel alloys are commonly used for the construction
of instruments and of wires for orthodontics.
• Gold alloys and alloys containing chromium are used
for making crowns, inlays, and denture bases.
• Amalgam, an alloy containing mercury, is the most
widely used dental filling material.
• With the exception of mercury, metals are
 generally hard and lustrous at ambient
temperatures,
 have crystalline structures in which the atoms are
closely packed together.
 opaque
 good conductors of both heat and electricity.

• The shaping of metals and alloys for dental use can

be accomplished by one of three methods, namely,
(1) casting, (2) cold working or (3) amalgamation.
(1) Casting
involves heating the material until it
becomes molten, when it can be
forced into an investment mold
which has been prepared from a wax
pattern.

(2) Cold working

involves mechanical shaping
of the metal at relatively low
temperatures, taking advantage
of the high values of ductility
and malleability possessed by
Orthodontic wires
many metals.
(3) Amalgamation
Some metals can be mixed with mercury to form a
plastic mass which gradually hardens by a chemical
reaction followed by crystallization.
The material is shaped by packing it into a tooth cavity
whilst still in the plastic state.
 STRUCTURE & PROPERTIES OF METALS

Crystal structure
• Metals usually have crystalline structure in the solid
state.
• When a molten metal or alloy is cooled, the
solidification process is one of crystallization and is
initiated at specific sites called nuclei.
• The nuclei are generally formed from impurities
within the molten mass of metal.
• Crystals grow as dendrites, which can be described
as three-dimensional branched network structures
emanating from the central nuclei.
• Crystal growth continues until all material has solidified
and all the dendritic crystals are in contact.
• Each crystal is known as a grain and the area between
two grains in contact is the grain boundary.
• After crystallization,
 the grains have approximately the same
dimensions in each direction, measured from the
central nucleus.
 They are not perfectly spherical or cubic however,
nor do they conform to any other geometric shape.
 They are said to have an equiaxed grain structure.
• A change from an equiaxed structure to one in which
the grains have a more elongated, fibrous structure
can cause important changes in mechanical properties.
• The atoms within each grain are arranged in a regular
three-dimensional lattice.
• There are several possible arrangements such as cubic,
body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic
• The arrangement adopted by any one crystal depends
on specific factors such as atomic radius and charge
distributions on the atoms.
• Although there is a tendency towards a perfect
crystal structure, occasional defects occur, as
illustrated in the next slide.
• Such defects are normally referred to as
dislocations and their occurrence has an effect on
the ductility of the metal or alloy.
• When the material is placed under a sufficiently high
stress the dislocation is able to move through the
lattice until it reaches a grain boundary.
• Slip plane: The plane along which the dislocation
moves
• Yield stress: the stress required to initiate
movement is the
 Apply the above mentioned slide
to practical terms
• In practical terms, the application of a stress greater
than the yield stress
causes the material to be permanently deformed
as a result of movement of dislocations.
• Depending upon the circumstances, this can be a
disadvantage or, alternatively, may be used to
advantage, as in the formation of wires.
• Grain boundaries form a natural barrier to the
movement of dislocations
• The concentration of grain boundaries increases as
the grain size decreases.
• Metals with finer grain structure are
generally harder and
have higher values of yield stress than those with
coarser grain structure.
• Hence, it can be seen that material properties can be
controlled to some extent by controlling the grain size.
• A fine grain structure can be achieved
By rapid cooling of the molten metal or alloy
following casting,
often referred to as quenching,
ensures that many nuclei of crystallization are
formed, resulting in a large number of relatively
small grains.
Slow cooling- less nuclei Rapid cooling- more nuclei
 COLD WORKING
• A process of plastically deforming metal at room
temperature
• Permanent deformation takes place on the
application of a sufficiently high force, due to the
movement of dislocations along slip planes.
• For an applied tensile force, the maximum degree of
extension is a measure of the ductility of the metal or
alloy.
• For an applied compressive force the maximum
degree of compression is a measure of malleability.
• These changes occur when the stress is greater than
the yield stress and at relatively low temperatures.
• Such cold working not only produces a change in
microstructure, with dislocations becoming
concentrated at grain boundaries, but also a change in
grain shape.
• The grains are no longer equiaxed but take up a more
fibrous structure.
• The properties of materials are altered, becoming
harder and stronger with a high value of yield stress.
• The ductility or malleability is decreased because the
potential for further cold working is reduced.
• Cold working is sometimes referred to as work
hardening due to the effect on mechanical properties.
• When mechanical work is carried out on a metal
or alloy at a more elevated temperature, it is
possible for the metal object to change shape
without any alteration in grain shape or
mechanical properties.
• Recrystallization temperature: The temperature
below which work hardening is possible
• Examples of cold working in dentistry include the
following.
1) The formation of wires, in which an alloy is
forced through a series of circular dies of
gradually decreasing diameter.
The resulting fibrous grain structure is
responsible for the special springy properties
possessed by most wires.
2) The bending of wires or clasp during the
construction and alteration of appliances.
3) The swaging of stainless steel denture bases.
Limitation to cold working
• Since metals and alloys have finite values of
ductility and malleability, there is a limit to the
amount of cold working which can be carried out.
• Attempts to carry out further cold working beyond
this limit may result in fracture.
• This limitation should be remembered when
carrying out alterations to clasp constructed from
low-ductility alloys.
 STRUCTURE & PROPERTIES OF
ALLOYS
• Binary alloy: mixture of two metals
• Ternary alloy: mixtures of three metals
• Alloy system refers to all possible compositions of
an alloy.
• In the molten state metals usually show mutual
solubility, one within another,.
• When the molten mixture is cooled to below the
melting point one of four things can occur:
1) The component metals may remain soluble in each
other forming a solid solution.
2) The component metals may be completely
insoluble in the solid state.
3) The two metals may be partially soluble in the
solid state.
4) If the two metals show a particular affinity for one
another they may form intermetallic compounds
with precise chemical formulation (e.g., Ag3Sn)
• Solid solution in point no. 1 (previous slide) may take
one of the following 3 forms:
• A random solid solution in which the component
metal atoms occupy random sites in a common
crystal lattice.
• An ordered solid solution in which component
metal atoms occupy specific sites within a common
crystal lattice.
• An interstitial solid solution in which, for binary
alloys, the primary lattice sites are occupied by one
metal atom and the atoms of the second
component do not occupy lattice sites but lie
within the interstices of the lattice.
 ATOMIC LEVEL
BONDING
• Primary bonds
• Ionic, Covalent, Metallic
• Strong and stiff, do not easily melt with increasing
temperature
• e.g. Metals, Ceramics
• Secondary bonds
• Hydrogen, van der Waals
• Weak
Ionic Bonding
• Involves the transfer of one or more electrons between
atoms of different types
• The atom becomes charged ions (e.g. Na+ and Cl-)
which attract one another and form a chemical bond
due to their opposite electrostatic charges.
• e.g. salts, oxides, NaCl, MgO, gypsum
• Tend to be hard and brittle
Covalent Bonding
• Involves sharing of electrons by adjacent atoms.
• The tight covalent bonds make such simple
molecules relatively independent of one another,
so that collections of them tend to form liquids or
gases at ambient temperatures.
• Precise bond orientations
• e.g. H2,, H2O, Cl2,
Methylmethacrylate
Metallic Bonding
• The outer shell of electrons of most metals is less
than half full. Each atom donates one or more
electrons to a “cloud” of electrons.
• These electrons are shared in common by all of the
metal atoms, which have become positively
charged ions as a result of giving up electrons.
• The metal ions are thus held together by their
mutual attraction to the electron
cloud.
• Excellent electrical and thermal
conductivity
• Ability to deform plastically
A. Ionic bond formation
•e- transfer from one
element to another

B. Covalent bond formation

•e- sharing
•very precise bond
orientations

C. Metallic bond formation

•e- sharing
•formation of a “gas” of e
that bonds the atoms
together in a lattice
 STRUCTURE LEVEL
CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE &
NONCRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE
(Amorphous)
• Materials can be amorphous or crystalline (or
mixtures of both, as in some plastics) in solid state.
• Crystallinity, or the lack of it, often determines the
use properties of a material.
• Metals and ceramics are composed of
aggregations of small grains, each of which is an
individual crystal.
• Glasses have an amorphous or noncrystalline structure.
• Polymers are composed of chain-like molecules, which
are sometimes arranged in regular arrays in a
crystalline manner.
POLYMER

Amorphous structure Crystalline structure

Crystalline Structure
 When a solid has a crystalline structure, the
atoms are arranged in repeating structures call
unit cells.
 The cells form a larger 3-D array called a lattice
or a crystal.
 Possess a periodicity that
produces long range order
• In the solid state, a crystalline polymer is stiff and rigid
with a very high “viscosity”.
• When heated to the melting point (Tm), the viscosity
drops significantly and abruptly to a much lower level.
(~ ice, when it melts).
• Atoms in a space lattice are constantly in vibration
about their centers. The average kinetic energy of
vibration over the entire crystal is related to the
temperature.
• All the atoms do not posses the same amount of
energy.
• If the energy of an atom exceeds the bonding
energy, it can move to another position in the
lattice. “Diffusion”
The Nature of Metals
1) Solids composed of atoms held together by a
matrix of electrons
2) Strong
3) Good ductility and malleability  due to the
ability of the atomic centers to slide against
each other into new positions within the same
crystal lattice (nature of metallic bond)
 Ductility = ability to be drawn into a wire
 Malleability = ability to be pounded into a
thin sheet
4) Good electrical and thermal conductivity
Solidification of Pure metals
• When pure metals solidify from the liquid state,
the process occurs at a constant temperature.

Cooling Curve
• A cooling curve is a line graph that represents the
change of phase of matter, typically from a gas to a
solid or liquid to a solid.
• It represents the interrelationship
between 2 variables which are ;
• Time
• Temperature
• For the pure metal
The solidification temperature = the melting
temperature = fusion temperature

Liquid

Pure metal Solid

change
directly from
Liquid to
Solid at 1
temperature