## 3 Results and Discussion
### Material Setting Properties and Detail Reproduction  
The results of the standard setting tests, i.e., setting time and contraction after 24 h, are presented in Table 4. Because the setting reaction of the alginate formulation consists of the transformation of the material from the liquid phase (sol) into a gel, it can be characterized by the working time within which the material remains in the liquid phase and can change its shape, adapting to the oral soft tissues and teeth when taking an impression. The setting time of the alginate mass should not be too long, as it would unnecessarily extend the time needed to take an impression and cause additional discomfort to the patient. The material after its working time will cause voids in the impression. The commercial materials can be characterized by a short gel setting time of less than two minutes (Tropical IQ at 107.4 s) at room temperature, and by a normal setting time of less than 3 min (the three remaining products). Therefore, the commercial products' setting time is in the 107-147 s timeframe. The obtained formulations fit within this range, as the setting time was found to be from 127 s for X2 to 131 s for X1 and X3, making these materials considered to be of normal setting time. The slight increase in the setting time for samples containing a bacteriostatic agent, as compared to Tropical IQ, may be due to the reaction of the alginate with either the silver or zirconium ions contained in the AlphaSan powder instead of the calcium ions that are needed to gel the alginate. However, this process can be easily corrected at the stage of material production by increasing the loading of K\({}_{2}\)TiF\({}_{6}\), which is a catalyst that accelerates the crosslinking process [40]. Alginate materials lose water over time, which causes their contraction. However, this value cannot be greater than 2% after 24 h. The tested materials had a dimensional change from 1.08% for the formulation X3 to 1.22% for X2, which is larger than that of \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Material** & **Setting Time [s]** & **Contraction after 24 h [\%]** \\ \hline Kromopan & 132.2 \(\pm\) 2.8  \\ \hline Tropical IQ & 107.4 \(\pm\) 2.1  & 0.90 \(\pm\) 0.09  & 1.02 \(\pm\) 0.08  \\ \hline X2 & 127.2 \(\pm\) 2.6  \\ \hline X3 & 131.6 \(\pm\) 1.1 & 1.08 \(\pm\) 0.06 [FOOTNOTE:]Footnote : Statistically significant compared to Kromopan alginate material, for \(p<\) 0.05.[ENDFOOTNOTE] \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: The results of the setting tests of commercial alginates and formulations with the AlphaSan bacteriostatic agent. most of the commercial products, but comparable with Tropical IQ. Material shrinkage can greatly vary depending on the manufacturer and grade of the material, which [PERSON] et al. [34] presented in their research; when testing Tropicalgin and Hydrogum 5 materials, they obtained values of 0.4% after the first 24 h of material storage. The shrinkage of alginate materials under storage is a phenomenon widely described in the literature. Recently, a group of materials has been introduced on the market that can be stored for a longer period of time (in an environment of 100% humidity). Examples of such materials are Kromopan and KromaFaze, tested in this study. After 24 h, they had dimensional changes of 0.83% and 1.01%, respectively. This phenomenon can be minimized to some extent by rinsing the impression with water and storing it in a sealed plastic container that is maintained in an environment of 100% humidity [31]. The research carried out showed that the surfaces of the gypsum casting poured after storage of the impression in a plastic bag and covered with a wet towel were better than those casted immediately after rinsing. This phenomenon can be explained by the higher calcium/sodium ratio and the lower organic and water content of the extended-pour alginates compared to the conventional ones [33].