Mineralized collagen fibrils (MCFs) are distinct building blocks for bone material and perform an important mechanical function. A novel experimental technique using combined atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy is used to manipulate and measure the mechanical properties of individual MCFs from antler, which is a representative bone tissue. The recorded stress -strain response of individual MCFs under tension shows an initial linear deformation region for all fibrils, followed by inhomogeneous deformation above a critical strain. This inhomogeneous deformation is indicative of fibrils exhibiting either yield or strain hardening and suggests possible mineral compositional changes within each fibril. A phenomenological model is used to describe the fibril nano-mechanical behaviour.

A nanomechanical testing set-up is developed by integrating an atomic force microscope (AFM) for force measurements with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to provide imaging capabilities. Electrospun nanofibers of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), nylon-6 and biological mineralized collagen fibrils (MCFs) from antler bone were manipulated and tensile-tested using the AFM-SEM set-up. The complete stress-strain behavior to failure of individual nanofibers was recorded and a diversity of mechanical properties observed, highlighting how this technique is able to elucidate mechanical behavior due to structural composition at nanometer length scales.

Antler bone displays considerable toughness through the use of a complex nanofibrous structure of mineralized collagen fibrils (MCFs) bound together by non-collagenous proteins (NCPs). While the NCP regions represent a small volume fraction relative to the MCFs, significant surface area is evolved upon failure of the nanointerfaces formed at NCP-collagen fibril boundaries. The mechanical properties of nanointerfaces between the MCFs are investigated directly in this work using an in situ atomic force microscopy technique to pull out individual fibrils from the NCP. Results show that the NCP-fibril interfaces in antler bone are weak, which highlights the propensity for interface failure at the nanoscale in antler bone and extensive fibril pullout observed at antler fracture surfaces. The adhesion between fibrils and NCP is additionally suggested as being rate dependent, with increasing interfacial strength and fracture energy observed when pullout velocity decreases.

The mechanical properties of electrospun fiber networks are critical in a range of applications from filtration to tissue engineering and are dependent on the adhesion between contacting fibers within the network. This adhesion is complex as electrospun networks exhibit a variety of contacts, including both cross-cylinder and parallel fiber configurations. In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to quantify the work of adhesion between a pair of individual electrospun polyamide fibers using controlled orientations and measurable contact areas. The work of adhesion was found to depend strongly on the fiber-fiber contact, with the separation of fibers in a parallel fiber configuration exhibiting considerably higher work of adhesion across a range of contact lengths than a cross-cylinder configuration. Our work therefore highlights direction-dependent adhesion behavior between electrospun fibers due to a suggested polymer chain orientation mechanism which increases net van der Waals interactions and indicates the variability of adhesion within a random electrospun fiber network.