Work

Comparative structural, thermal, electrical, and dielectric properties of anatomical bone types for scaffold design

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: • Bone anatomy governs thermal, electrical, and dielectric behavior. • Rib bone shows higher organic content and lower crystallinity. • Temperature-dependent electrical behavior reveals thermally activated charge transport in bone. • Structural and compositional variations control dielectric polarization mechanisms. • Findings provide design principles for bioinspired materials and scaffold development. Bone is a hierarchically structured composite whose physical properties vary with its type and function. While the electrical behavior of bone has been studied, the influence of bone type on thermal, electrical, and dielectric properties remains underexplored. This study compares femur (long bone), jaw (irregular bone), and rib (flat bone) to elucidate structure–property relationships. Samples were analyzed using FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, SEM/EDX, TGA/DTG, and broadband dielectric spectroscopy from 100 Hz to 8 MHz and 20–100 °C. Rib bones exhibited the highest organic content, confirmed by FTIR/Raman signatures, ∼38% mass loss in TGA, and a Ca/P ratio of 1.94. XRD analysis revealed reduced crystallite size in rib (3.7 nm), versus femur (4.4 nm) and jaw (4.9 nm). AC conductivity increased with both frequency and temperature, with jaw bones showing the highest σdc values across all conditions. Conductivity spectra fitted to Jonscher’s universal power law indicated thermally activated hopping, with decreasing frequency exponent s from 0.91 to 0.81 (rib) and from 0.88 to 0.77 (femur). Dielectric measurements showed frequency- and temperature-dependent dispersion, with Maxwell–Wagner polarization dominating the low-frequency response. These results establish structure–property correlations across bone types and provide a foundation for designing bioinspired materials with tailored electrical and thermal responses.

Source: Materials & Design

DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2026.116191