New model for the hydroxyapatite–octacalcium phosphate interface

Abstract

Some experimental results have indicated that hydroxyapatite (HA) and octacalcium phosphate (OCP) can form an epitaxic interface. Subsequently the OCP–HA interface has become of great biological interest in the context of mineralized tissue formation. In this work a new OCP–HA interface model based on Brown's proposed configuration [Brown (1962), Nature, 197, 1048–1050] and using the minimum interface free-energy optimization is presented. This new model is formed by half a unit cell of HA and one unit cell of OCP, as in Brown's model, but in our case [1\overline 210] of HA is `glued' with [010] of OCP. Therefore, the relationship found was: [000\overline 1]HA parallel to [001]OCP and [1\overline 210]HA parallel to [010]OCP. Self-consistent field methods were used for the analysis of Brown's model and ours. It is shown that the atoms in our model have similar environments as in the HA and OCP unit cells and that, as a result of the differences between HA and OCP unit-cell parameters, this interface presents misfit-dislocation-like features. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) simulated images for the new interface model have been included and, when they are compared with the experimental ones, the similarity is quite good.