Rapid regeneration of enamel-like-oriented inorganic crystals by using rotary evaporation

• Published in: Materials Science & Engineering C 2020-10, Vol.115, p.111141, Article 111141
• Main Authors: Wang, Shengrui, Zhang, Le, Chen, Wendy, Jin, Huimin, Zhang, Ya, Wu, Leping, Shao, Hui, Fang, Zehui, He, Xiaoxue, Zheng, Shunli, Cao, Chris Ying, Wong, Hai Ming, Li, Quanli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomimetic Materials - chemical synthesis; Biomimetic Materials - chemistry; Biomimetics; Biomineralization; Calcium; Calcium - chemistry; Calcium phosphates; Coating; Crystal structure; Crystallization; Crystals; Dental Enamel - chemistry; Dentin; Enamel; Evaporation; Fibroins - chemistry; Humans; Hydroxyapatite; Hydroxyapatites - chemical synthesis; Hydroxyapatites - chemistry; Materials science; Mechanical properties; Nanorods; Nanotubes; Phosphates - chemistry; Polyethylene; Polyethylenes; Regeneration; Silk; Silk fibroin; Substrates; Surgical implants; Titanium; Tooth Remineralization; Zinc oxide; Zinc Oxide - chemical synthesis; Zinc Oxide - chemistry
• ISSN: 0928-4931; 1873-0191
• DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2020.111141

Enamel, the hardest tissue in the human body, has excellent mechanical properties, mainly due to its highly ordered spatial structure. Fabricating enamel-like structure is still a challenge today. In this work, a simple and highly efficient method was introduced, using the silk fibroin as a template to regulate calcium- and phosphate- supersaturated solution to regenerate enamel-like hydroxyapatite crystals on various substrates (enamel, dentin, titanium, and polyethylene) under rotary evaporation. The enamel-like zinc oxide nanorod array structure was also successfully synthesized using the aforementioned method. This strategy provides a new approach to design and fabricate mineral crystals with particular orientation coatings for materials. [Display omitted] •Novel strategy for generating enamel-like structure on various material surfaces.•The strategy showed higher efficiency (50 μm/day) compared to the literature reports (1–2 μm/day).•The strategy could be applied to the synthesis of other highly oriented inorganic crystals, such as ZnO nanorod array.•The mechanism of growing the enamel-like oriented inorganic crystals was presented.