Biodegradable conducting polymeric materials for biomedical applications: a review

Abstract

Biomaterials are natural or synthetic materials that are biodegradable and interact cordially with biological systems (Qu et al., 2019). These can be well-defined as a material envisioned to interface with biological systems for evaluation, treatment and replacement of organs, tissues or function of the body (Basu & Ghosh, 2017; Reis et al., 2016). They play a key role in the human health system which is attained from nature or the environment (Mir et al., 2018). Generally, biopolymers are the main class of biomaterials as biopolymers are biocompatible, biodegradable and human body-friendly (Rebelo et al., 2017). These biopolymers are further classified as biodegradable and non-biodegradable according to their nature (Andreeßen & Steinbüchel, 2019; Kabir et al., 2020). Due to their outstanding biocompatibility, biodegradable polymers are known as the best candidate for biomedical applications such as drug delivery systems, vascular grafts, surgical sutures, artificial skin, bone fixation devices, gene delivery systems, tissue engineering and diagnostic applications. Biomedical engineering is an attractive branch which deals with engineering and biology together to put on engineering materials and rudiments in the field of healthcare and medicine. Tissue engineering is also a part of it that fulfils the purposes of recovering or exchange failing or broken body tissue by merging cells, scaffolds and bioactive molecules. Scaffolds should combine various functions such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, ideal mechanical strength, adequate porosity for small molecule transportation, controllability, implantation and sterilization. Hence, natural polymers such as gelatin and chitosan are the perfect match for scaffold fabrication and synthetic aliphatic polyesters too. However, these revealed poor hydrophilicity which limits the cell attachment on surfaces and lack of sites for covalent bonding. While having their biodegradable nature, biopolymers or conventional polymers are insulators in nature so that limits the use in some biomedical applications where conducting properties of biomaterials is indispensable (George et al., 2020). In many applications of implants in the body, such as in bone fixing materials, dental materials and bone substitution materials, there is a need for such type of material showing long-term stable performance. In other applications such as controlled drug delivery, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering

Conducting polymers/zinc oxide-based photocatalysts for environmental remediation: a review

“…Conducting polymers are the class of conjugated polymers having the π-conjugated system in their backbone and have a wide area of applications in the field of optoelectronics (Khokhar et al 2020b ), biomedical (Jadoun et al 2021c ), photovoltaic devices (Jadoun and Riaz 2020 ), etc., due to their unique optical, electrical, and photoelectric properties (Jadoun et al 2021b ). Conducting polymers are extensively used as a photosensitizer to enhance the semiconductor’s photocatalytic properties (Jangid et al 2020b ).…”

Recent advances in the aqueous applications of PEDOT

“…PEDOT-based nanolms/nanoparticles/nanocomposites represent a viable way to interface electronic devices with biological matter in vitro and in vivo. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] Routinely studied variants of PEDOT, such as those doped with PSS or tosylate, are promising materials for biological applications. Mokhtar et al 37 have investigated the stability of various doped PEDOT in biological uid, i.e.…”

Recent trends and advances in polyindole-based nanocomposites as potential antimicrobial agents: a mini review

“…The nanocomposites may have the sensitivity towards bacterial and fungal cell wall structures, which contribute to their antibacterial activities. 125–127 All the developed systems exhibited good antibacterial activity against the selected pathogenic microorganisms. The results facilitate the need for further research in order to explore the applications of polyindole/Ag–Co 3 PO 4 nanocomposites as efficient biomedical agents.…”