Ultrafine heat-induced structural perturbations of bone mineral at the individual nanocrystal level

Abstract

To cite this version:M. Verezhak, E.F. Rauch, M. Veron, C. Lancelon-Pin, J.-L. Putaux, et al.. Ultrafine heat-induced structural perturbations of bone mineral at the individual nanocrystal level. Acta Biomaterialia, Elsevier, 2018Elsevier, , 10.1016Elsevier, /j.actbio.2018 Online version: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706118301946 Abstract: The nanoscale characteristics of the mineral phase in bone tissue such as nanocrystal size, organization, structure and composition have been identified as potential markers of bone quality. However, such characterization remains challenging since it requires combining structural analysis and imaging modalities with nanoscale precision. In this paper, we report the first application of automated crystal orientation mapping using transmission electron microscopy (ACOM-TEM) to the structural analysis of bone mineral at the individual nanocrystal level. By controlling the nanocrystal growth of a cortical bovine bone model artificially heated up to 1000 ºC, we highlight the potential of this technique. We thus show that the combination of sample mapping by scanning and the crystallographic information derived from the collected electron diffraction patterns provides a more rigorous analysis of the mineral nanostructure than standard TEM. In particular, we demonstrate that nanocrystal orientation maps provide valuable information for dimensional analysis. Furthermore, we show that ACOM-TEM has sufficient sensitivity to distinguish between phases with close crystal structures and we address unresolved questions regarding the existence of a hexagonal to monoclinic phase transition induced by heating. This first study therefore opens new perspectives in bone characterization at the nanoscale, a daunting challenge in the biomedical and archaeological fields, which could also prove particularly useful to study the mineral characteristics of tissue grown at the interface with biomaterials implants.

Time-domain THz spectroscopy of the characteristics of hydroxyapatite provides a signature of heating in bone tissue

“…The X-ray diffraction investigations confirm that the thermally treated bone has a lattice structure similar to HA crystals. This scenario is in full agreement with other experimental results [ 24 , 51 ].…”

Tuning the Crystallization Mechanism by Composition Vacancy in Phase Change Materials

“…Initially, we examined the temperature-dependent stability of the crystal/ crystal interface in GST by annealing two as-deposited samples for half an hour at 200 and 280 °C. To assess the grain size, we employed state-of-the-art ACOM-TEM 40 techniques, which work by comparing the collected electron diffraction patterns with the simulated patterns of all possible orientation maps based on given template structures (Figure S4 provides additional details). Figure 2a,b shows the ACOM-TEM images of two GST samples annealed at 200 and 280 °C, respectively.…”