Determination of electrophysical and structural properties of human cancellous bone and synthetic bone substitute material using impedance spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction

Electrophysical stimulation is used to support fracture healing and bone regeneration. For design optimization of electrostimulative implants, in combination with applied human donor bone or synthetic bone scaffolds, the knowledge of electrophysical properties is fundamental. Hence further investigations of the structural properties of native and synthetic bone is of high interest to improve biofunctionality of bone scaffolds and subsequent healing of the bone defect. The investigation of these properties was taken as an objective of this study. Therefore, surgically extracted fresh cylindrical and consecutively ashed cancellous bone samples from human osteoarthritic femoral heads were characterized and compared to synthetic bone substitute material. Thereby, impedance spectroscopy is used to determine the electrophysical properties and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) for analysis of structural information of the bone samples. Conductivity and permittivity of fresh and ashed cancellous bone amounted to 1.710–2 S/m and 7.5106 and 210–5 S/m and 7.2103 , respectively. Electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity of bone scaffold resulted in 1.710–7 S/m and 49. Analysis of the structural properties showed that the synthetic bone scaffolds made of Brushite exhibited some reflections which correspond to the native bone samples. The information in present study of the bone material (synthetic and autologous) could be used for later patient individual application of electrostimulative implants.