The Materials Science of Bone: Lessons from Nature for Biomimetic Materials Synthesis
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Science of Bone: Lessons from Nature for Biomimetic Materials Synthesis Michelle L. Oyen
Abstract There has been considerable recent interest in natural bone as a material, due in part to its interesting combination of mechanical properties: bone is stiff and tough but lightweight. This unusual combination of properties results from a nanocomposite structure of approximately equal volumes of mineral and hydrated organic matter. Much recent effort has been focused on the structure, properties, and performance at different length scales relative to the hierarchical organization of bone. Historically, such bone research has emphasized clinical and medical aspects, including engineering materials for bone augmentation or replacement, bone–biomaterial interactions and interfaces, and more recently, scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. However, within the fastgrowing biomimetics field, the bone extracellular matrix is taken as a model for materials development. Efforts have been made both to mimic the bony material itself as well as to mimic the process by which bone forms.
Introduction The field of biomimetics has grown quickly in recent years, in that scientists and engineers in non-biological fields have increasingly been drawing on natural biological systems for inspiration. There has been particular interest by materials scientists in the development of biomimetic materials based on nanocomposites found in nature, including nacre (shell),1,2 insect cuticle,3 and bone.4 In addition to interest in bone-like materials themselves, there is great interest in the synthesis routes that allow for processing of ceramic materials at room temperature and pressure. Problems in technology are typically solved by engineers with the addition of large quantities of energy, in stark contrast to nature’s low-energy solutions.5 Biomimetic processing routes—such as templating on an organic matrix6,7—have potential uses far beyond the realm of mimicking natural materials.
Bone is the structural material that comprises the bulk of the vertebrate skeleton. The nonliving material in bone is a natural organic–inorganic composite with fundamental features at nanometer length scales. Bone tissue imparts mechanical support and protection to the vertebrate skeleton and provides other important biological functions, including acting as a store for calcium and housing the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. The unusual combination of mechanical properties observed in bone tissue has led to substantial interest in studying natural bone and in synthesizing bone-like materials. Interest in making neo-bone is twofold: replacement bones are of interest from a medical perspective,4 while the potential uses of a bone-like material for nonmedical applications8 have gained recent attention. In this article, we briefly review bone from a materials science and engineering
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 33 • JANUARY 2008 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
perspective, including all four aspects of the structure–processing–properties– performance relationship. The
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