BIOMATERIALS AND NANOMATERIALS

BIOMATERIALS

A biomaterial is any substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems
for a medical purpose - either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair or replace a tissue function
of the body) or a diagnostic one.

Can be:

• Metals and alloys biomaterials

• Ceramics biomaterials

• Polymer biomaterials

• Composite biomaterials

• Living cell and Tissue

PROPERTIES

 Biocompatibility

 Mechanical Properties

 Physical Properties

 Chemical Properties

Biocompatibility

• General term describing the property of a material being compatible with living tissue

• It’s what makes something, A Biomaterial

Mechanical Properties

• Hardness, fatigue, fracture toughness, elasticity, etc.

Physical Properties

• Size, shape, surface, etc.

Chemical Properties

• Chemical composition , distribution of the elements, Etc.

IMPORTANCE OF BIOMATERIALS
• Advancement in the medical field
• Help People/Improves lives
• Reduce Traumatic Surgery
Biomaterials must be:
• Nontoxic
• Nonallergic
• Biocompatible

How are Biomaterials used in current medical practice?

Medical implants
- including heart valves, stents, and grafts; artificial joints, ligaments, and tendons; hearing loss
implants; dental implants; and devices that stimulate nerves.
Methods to healing of human tissue
-including sutures, clips, and staples for wound closure, and dissolvable dressings.
Regenerated human tissues
-using a combination of biomaterial supports or scaffolds, cells, and bioactive molecules.
Examples include a bone regenerating hydrogel and a lab-grown human bladder.
Molecular probes and nanoparticles
-break through biological barriers and aid in cancer imaging and therapy at the molecular level.
Biosensors
-detect the presence and amount of specific substances and to transmit that data. Examples
are blood glucose monitoring devices and brain activity sensors.
Drug-delivery systems
-carry and/or apply drugs to a disease target. Examples include drug-coated vascular stents
and implantable chemotherapy wafers for cancer patients.
APPLICATIONS OF BIOMATERIALS
Heart Valve
 Tissue-engineered heart valves have been proposed by physicians and scientists alike
to be the ultimate solution for treating vascular heart disease.
Pacemaker
 A pacemaker is a medical device witch uses electrical impulses delivered by electrodes
contacting the heart muscles
 This sensing and stimulating activity continues on a beat by beat basis.
Artificial Heart
 Artificial heart is a mechanical device, typically used in order to bridge the time to heart
transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in case transplantation is
impossible.
Dental Implants
 Dental implants are metal posts or frames that are surgically positioned into the
jawbone beneath your gums.
Intraocular Lenses
 Intraocular lenses are polymeric devices implanted in the globe of the eye and intended
to replace the cloudy, cataractous natural lens.
Contact lens
 Contact lenses are made of pliable hydrophilic plastics called hydrogels. Hydrogels
absorb significant amounts of water to keep the lenses soft and supple
Vascular Grafts
 A vascular graft is a surgical procedure performed to redirect blood flow from one area
to another by reconnecting blood vessels.
Hip Implants
 Hip replacement is surgery to replace a worn out or damaged hip joint. The surgeon
replaces the old joint with an artificial joint (prosthesis).
Knee Implants
 This piece replaces the joint (sometimes also the ligaments), it allowing the movement
of the knee and the mobility of the leg.
 It is intended to assist in joint mobility of the knee, but this may have negative side
effects to the person like urinary incontinence among others.

DISADVANTAGES OF BIOMATERIALS
Metals
a. May Corrode
b. Difficult to make
Polymers
a. Not Strong
b. Deforms with Time
Ceramics
a. Brittle
b. Difficult to make
Composites
 Difficult to make
 High cost
NANOMATERIALS
 Nanomaterials are chemical substances or materials that are manufactured and used at
a very small scale.
 Nanomaterials are developed to exhibit novel characteristics compared to the same
material without nanoscale features, such as increased strength, chemical reactivity or
conductivity.
 Nanotechnology is hailed as having the potential to increase the efficiency of energy
consumption, help clean the environment, and solve major health problems. It is said to
be able to massively increase manufacturing production at significantly reduced costs.
Products of nanotechnology will be smaller, cheaper, lighter yet more functional and
require less energy and fewer raw materials to manufacture.
PROPERTIES OF NANOMATERIAL
 Optical Properties
 Electrical Properties
 Mechanical Properties
 Magnetic Properties

Optical properties
- One of the most fascinating and useful aspects of nanomaterials is their optical
properties.
Electrical Properties
-"Electrical Properties of Nanoparticles” discuss about fundamentals of electrical
conductivity in nanotubes and nanorods, carbon nanotubes, photoconductivity of
nanorods, electrical conductivity of nanocomposites.
Mechanical Properties
- "Mechanical Properties of Nanoparticles” deals with bulk metallic and ceramic
materials, influence of porosity, influence of grain size, superp lasticity, filled polymer
composites, particle filled polymers, polymer-based nanocomposites filled with
platelets, carbon nanotube-based composites.
Magnetic Properties
- Bulk gold and Pt are non-magnetic, but at the nano size they are magnetic. Surface
atoms are not only different to bulk atoms, but they can also be modified by interaction
with other chemical species, that is, by capping the nanoparticles.
How Nanomaterials are made?
Two strategies for fabricating nanomaterials
1) “bottom-up” approach (chemo-physical process)
2) “top-down” approach (mechanical-physical procces)
Top-down approach
Milling Process
The mechanical production approach uses milling to crush micro-particles. This
approach is applied in producing metallic and ceramic nanomaterials. For metallic
nano particles, for example traditional source materials are pulverized using high ball
mils. Such mills are equiped with grinding media composed of wolfrom carbide or steel
Bottom-up approach/ chemo-physical process
-This approach produces selected, more complex structures from atoms or molecules,
better controlling sizes, shapes and size ranges
1)Gas Phase
*aerosol processes
2)Liquid Phase
*precipitation processes
*sol-gel processes
Aerosol Processes
Nano particles are created from the gas phase by producing a vapor of the
product material using chemical or physical means. The production of the initial nano
particles, which can be in a liquid or solid state , takes place via homogeneous
nucleation.
Depending on the process, further particle growth involves:
1)Condensation
2)Chemical reaction / coagulation process
3)Coalescence process
Liquid phase process
-The most important liquid phase processes in nano material production are the
following precipitation process and sol-gel processes
Precipitation Process
- The precipitation of solids from metal ion containing solution is one of the most
frequently employed production processes for nanomaterials. Metal oxides as well as
non oxides or metallic nanoparticles can be produce by this approach
Sol-gel processes
-‘SOL” means a colloidal suspension, is a solution in which a material is evenly
suspended in a liquid . In other words , a colloid is microscopically small substance that
is equally dispersed throughout another material.
- SOL-GEL synthesis are wet-chemical processes for producing porous nanomaterials ,
ceramic nano-structural polymers as well as oxide nanoparticles.
APPLICATIONS OF BIOMATERIALS
1. Nanotechnology Applications in Medicine
2. Because of their small size, nanoscale devices can readily interact with biomolecules on
both the surface of cells and inside of cells.
3. By gaining access to so many areas of the body, they have the potential to detect
disease and the deliver treatment.
4. Nanoparticles can deliver drugs directly to diseased cells in your body.
5. Nanomedicine is the medical use of molecular- sized particles to deliver drugs,
heat, light or other substances to specific cells in the human body.
Nanowires – used as medical sensor
• In this diagram (next page), Nano sized sensing wires are laid down across a micro
fluidic channel. As particles flow through the micro fluidic channel, the Nanowire
sensors pick up the molecular identifications of these particles and can immediately
relay this information through a connection of electrodes to the outside world.
• These Nanodevices are man-made constructs made with carbon, silicon Nanowire.
• They can detect the presence of altered genes associated with cancer and may help
researchers pinpoint the exact location of those changes
Nano Computing Technology
Past
Shared computing thousands of people sharing a mainframe computer
Present
Personal computing
Future
Ubiquitous computing thousands of computers sharing each
and everyone of us; computers embedded in walls, chairs, clothing,
light switches, cars….; characterized by the connection of things in
the world with computation.
Fuel Cells
• The potential use of nano-engineered membranes to intensify catalytic processes could
enable higher-efficiency, small-scale fuel cells.
Displays
• Nanocrystalline zinc selenide, zinc sulphide, cadmium sulphide and lead telluride are
candidates for the next generation of light-emitting phosphors.
• CNTs are being investigated for low voltage field-emission displays; their strength,
sharpness, conductivity and inertness make them potentially very efficient and long-
lasting emitters.
Batteries
• With the growth in portable electronic equipment (mobile phones, navigation devices,
laptop computers, remote sensors), there is great demand for lightweight, high-energy
density batteries.
• Nanocrystalline materials are candidates for separator plates in batteries because of
their foam-like (aerogel) structure, which can hold considerably more energy than
conventional ones.
• Nickel–metal hydride batteries made of nanocrystalline nickel and metal hydrides are
envisioned to require less frequent recharging and to last longer because of their large
grain boundary (surface) area.
Catalysts
In general, nanoparticles have a high surface area, and hence provide higher catalytic activity.

Water purification
• Nano-engineered membranes could potentially lead to more energy-efficient water
purification processes, notably in desalination process.
Military Battle Suits
• Enhanced nanomaterials form the basis of a state-of- the-art ‘battle suit’ that is being
developed.
• A short-term development is likely to be energy-absorbing materials that will withstand
blast waves;
• longer-term are those that incorporate sensors to detect or respond to chemical and
biological weapons (for example, responsive nanopores that ‘close’ upon detection of a
biological agent).

DISADVANTAGES OF NANOMATERIALS
1. Health and safety issues: Nano particles can cause serious illness or damage to human
body. Carbon Nanotubes could cause infection of lungs.
2. Loss of jobs in manufacturing and farming etc.
3. Atomic weapons could be more accessible and destructive.
4. Nano pollution is created by toxic waste