XANES investigation of the influence of a coordinating atomic environment in biomimetic composite materials

In our work, the influence of the coordination environment of the Ca atom states in biomimetic mineralizing composite dental materials integrated with dental tissue was investigated. Biomimetic composites as well as natural dental tissue samples were investigated using synchrotron X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. Energy structure studies revealed a number of important features related to the different type of calcium atom environment. the surface of nanocrystalline calcium carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite (nano-cHAp) crystals in natural enamel and dentin involved in the formation of bonds with the organic matrix is more characterized by the coordination environment of the calcium atom corresponding to its location in the CaI position, i.e. bound through common oxygen atoms with PO4 tetrahedrons. At the same time, on the surface of nano-cHAp crystals in bioinspired dental materials, the calcium atom is more characteristically located in the CaII position, bound to the hydroxyl OH group. The detected features in the coordination atomic environment in nano-cHAp play a fundamental role for engineering a biomimetic dental composite of the natural organomineral interaction in the mineralized tissue. •Engineering and integration of artificial bioinspired materials.•Important features related to the different type of calcium atom environment.•The calcium atom is more characteristically located in the CaII position.