The hidden structure of human enamel.

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ID: 53374
2019
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Abstract
Enamel is the hardest and most resilient tissue in the human body. Enamel includes morphologically aligned, parallel, ∼50 nm wide, microns-long nanocrystals, bundled either into 5-μm-wide rods or their space-filling interrod. The orientation of enamel crystals, however, is poorly understood. Here we show that the crystalline c-axes are homogenously oriented in interrod crystals across most of the enamel layer thickness. Within each rod crystals are not co-oriented with one another or with the long axis of the rod, as previously assumed: the c-axes of adjacent nanocrystals are most frequently mis-oriented by 1°-30°, and this orientation within each rod gradually changes, with an overall angle spread that is never zero, but varies between 30°-90° within one rod. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the observed mis-orientations of adjacent crystals induce crack deflection. This toughening mechanism contributes to the unique resilience of enamel, which lasts a lifetime under extreme physical and chemical challenges.
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beniash2019thenature Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Elia Beniash, Cayla A Stifler, Chang-Yu Sun, Gang Seob Jung, Zhao Qin, Markus J Buehler, Pupa U P A Gilbert
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Journal Nature communications
Year 2019
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-12185-7
URL
Keywords
deformation crack resistance glasses indentation micro‐ductility

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