Bone and dentin are hybrid materials composed of hydroxyapatite(HA) organized within collagen fibrils. Recently, several groups demonstrated thatHA mineralization of collagen fibrils begins with the infiltration of calciumphosphate nanoparticles. These nanoparticles subsequently transform intooriented HA resulting in a mechanically stiffer hybrid material. An in situ quartz crystal microbalance withdissipation (QCM-D) experiment has been designed to probe such a mineralizingsystem, with the goal of extracting viscoelastic parameters from mineralizingcollagen fibrils and focusing on the mechanical response during the amorphousto crystalline transformation. Experimentally, it is simple to detect the onsetof nanoparticle infiltration into collagen fibrils. However, determination ofthe change of viscoelastic parameters is challenging due to the heterogeneitycollagen fibril structures and potential lack of proper mechanical coupling offibular collagen to the QCM substrate.

Measuring a mechanical response during collagen mineralization

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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