Nanoindentation study of human fingernail for determining its structural elasticity

BACKGROUND: Human nails play an important role in transmitting force to the fingertips, and their mechanical properties are important indices. The nail has a three‐layered structure consisting of top dorsal, middle intermediate, and under ventral plates, and its internal structure is believed to affect its mechanical properties. However, this has not been investigated in previous studies. METHODS: The Young's moduli of the top, middle, and under plates were measured using nanoindentation, and a theoretical model was developed to estimate the structural elasticity for the bending deformation of human nails, which is an index describing the deformability of the nail without depending on its external dimensions. The structural elasticity of human nails was compared with that of human hair collected from the same person. The effect of the softening treatment on the nails was also evaluated. RESULTS: The Young's moduli of the top, middle, and under plates measured using nanoindentation were 2.9, 3.1, and 2.8 GPa, respectively. The structural elasticity of the nail was estimated to be 2.9 GPa, approximately 75% that of hair. Moreover, softening treatment with a urea cream reduced the structural elasticity of the nail to 70%. CONCLUSION: This paper proposed a method for estimating the structural elasticity of a human nail with a three‐layered structure. This index is a mechanical property with “Pa” as a unit, and is useful for comparing deformability with the Young's modulus of other homogeneous materials or for investigating the effect of various treatments quantitatively.