In this communication, we show how solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) can allow the structural characterization of surfaces and disordered domains from natural biominerals with a focus on bone and nacre.
A combination of highly advanced ssNMR experiments applied to various biological mineralized tissues such as sheep bone, fin rays from Zebra fish as well as adult and larva shell from European abalone Haliotis tuberculata leads to an unprecedented structural characterization of that amorphous domains and their corresponding organic-inorganic interface.
Finally, we will discuss the benefit of using dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) combined to ssNMR to selectively enhanced NMR signals from surface species from biomineral crystals. Indeed, DNP is a recently developed technique that allows the magnetization transfer from radicals unpaired electrons to nuclei inducing a huge enhancement of the NMR signal (up to 660 !).