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Topic Review
Progress on Plant-Inspired Soft Robotics
Millions of years’ evolution has imparted life on earth with excellent environment adaptability. Of particular interest to scientists are some plants capable of macroscopically and reversibly altering their morphological and mechanical properties in response to external stimuli from the surrounding environment. These intriguing natural phenomena and underlying actuation mechanisms have provided important design guidance and principles for man-made soft robotic systems. Constructing bio-inspired soft robotic systems with effective actuation requires the efficient supply of mechanical energy generated from external inputs, such as temperature, light, and electricity. By combining bio-inspired designs with stimuli-responsive materials, various intelligent soft robotic systems that demonstrate promising and exciting results have been developed. As one of the building materials for soft robotics, hydrogels are gaining increasing attention owing to their advantageous properties, such as ultra-tunable modulus, high compliance, varying stimuli-responsiveness, good biocompatibility, and high transparency. In this review article, we summarize the recent progress on plant-inspired soft robotics assembled by stimuli-responsive hydrogels with a particular focus on their actuation mechanisms, fabrication, and application. Meanwhile, some critical challenges and problems associated with current hydrogel-based soft robotics are briefly introduced, and possible solutions are proposed. We expect that this review would provide elementary tutorial guidelines to audiences who are interested in the study on nature-inspired soft robotics, especially hydrogel-based intelligent soft robotic systems. 
  • 1.3K
  • 03 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Multifunctional Polymeric Nanogels for Biomedical Applications
Currently, research in nanoparticles as a drug delivery system has broadened to include their use as a delivery system for bioactive substances and a diagnostic or theranostic system. Nanogels, nanoparticles containing a high amount of water, have gained attention due to their advantages of colloidal stability, core-shell structure, and adjustable structural components. These advantages provide the potential to design and fabricate multifunctional nanosystems for various biomedical applications. Modified or functionalized polymers and some metals are components that markedly enhance the features of the nanogels, such as tunable amphiphilicity, biocompatibility, stimuli-responsiveness, or sensing moieties, leading to specificity, stability, and tracking abilities. 
  • 1.3K
  • 07 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Cellulose/Graphene Composites for Tissue Engineering
Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles of engineering and life sciences to obtain biomaterials capable of maintaining, improving, or substituting the function of various tissues or even an entire organ. In virtue of its high availability, biocompatibility, and versatility, cellulose was considered a promising platform for such applications. The combination of cellulose with graphene or graphene derivatives leads to the obtainment of superior composites in terms of cellular attachment, growth and proliferation, integration into host tissue, and stem cell differentiation toward specific lineages.
  • 1.3K
  • 03 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Imine-Based Adaptive Covalent Chemistry
The imine bond, also referred to as the Schiff base, is one of the reversible covalent bonds that can participate in both associative and dissociative reactions. This opens up possibilities for mechanical and chemical recycling as well as self-healing.
  • 1.3K
  • 12 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells
Next-generation renewable energy sources and perovskite solar cells have revolutionised photovoltaics research and the photovoltaic industry. However, the presence of toxic lead in perovskite solar cells hampers their commercialisation. Lead-free tin-based perovskite solar cells are a potential alternative solution to this problem; however, numerous technological issues must be addressed before the efficiency and stability of tin-based perovskite solar cells can match those of lead-based perovskite solar cells.
  • 1.3K
  • 18 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Biomaterials and Their Potentialities as Additives in Bitumen
A lot of research is ongoing to improve bitumen’s properties due to its use as a binder in road paving processes. Over the years, the most common method to improve bitumen’s properties has been with the use of additives. The major drawback in the use of these additives is the fact that they are substances of strong chemical nature which are either too acidic, too basic or emit toxic fumes and volatile organic compounds into the environment. In the long run, these chemicals are also toxic to the road pavement personnel that carry out the day to day industrial and paving operations. This led researchers to the initiative of synthesizing and applying biomaterials to be used as additives for bitumen. In this light, several studies have investigated the use of substances such as bio-oils, natural waxes, gum, polysaccharides and natural rubber. 
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Complications of Dual Modular Stems
Titanium (Ti) alloys have been proven to be one of the most suitable materials for orthopaedic implants. Dual modular stems have been introduced to primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) to enable better control of the femoral offset, leg length, and hip stability. However, this recent innovation in the femoral stem design has proven itself to be an innovation trap actually. 
  • 1.3K
  • 10 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Sterilize Polylactic Acid
Sterilization is an important and problematic step that should be considered as early as possible in the design of any new medical device intended to be use in contact with sterile tissues, mucous membranes, or breached skin, in order to save money, time and trouble.
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Electrospun Nanofibers in Regeneration of Tissues and Organs
Electrospun techniques are promising and flexible technologies to fabricate ultrafine fiber/nanofiber materials from diverse materials with unique characteristics under optimum conditions. These fabricated fibers/nanofibers via electrospinning can be easily assembled into several shapes of three-dimensional (3D) structures and can be combined with other nanomaterials. Therefore, electrospun nanofibers, with their structural and functional advantages, have gained considerable attention from scientific communities as suitable candidates in biomedical fields, such as the regeneration of tissues and organs, where they can mimic the network structure of collagen fiber in its natural extracellular matrix(es). Due to these special features, electrospinning has been revolutionized as a successful technique to fabricate such nanomaterials from polymer media.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Artificial Scaffolds in Cardiac Tissue Engineering
Scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering are tridimensional porous structures that imitate the extracellular heart matrix, with the ability to promote cell adhesion, migration, differentiation, and proliferation. In the heart, there is an important requirement to provide scaffold cellular attachment, but scaffolds also need to permit mechanical contractility and electrical conductivity. For researchers working in cardiac tissue engineering, there is an important need to choose an adequate artificial scaffold biofabrication technique, as well as the ideal biocompatible biodegradable biomaterial for scaffold construction. Finally, there are many suitable options for researchers to obtain scaffolds that promote cell–electrical interactions and tissue repair, reaching the goal of cardiac tissue engineering. 
  • 1.3K
  • 03 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Three-Dimensional Printing of Hydroxyapatite Composites
Hydroxyapatite (HA) and HA-based nanocomposites have been recognized as ideal biomaterials in hard tissue engineering because of their compositional similarity to bioapatite. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been shown to provide a fast, precise, controllable, and scalable fabrication approach for the synthesis of HA-based scaffolds.
  • 1.3K
  • 17 May 2021
Topic Review
Cartilage Lubrication in Osteoarthritis
The remarkable lubrication properties of normal articular cartilage play an essential role in daily life, providing almost frictionless movements of joints. Alterations of cartilage surface or degradation of biomacromolecules within synovial fluid increase the wear and tear of the cartilage and hence determining the onset of the most common joint disease, osteoarthritis (OA).
  • 1.3K
  • 03 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Nanosized Hydroxyapatite
The development of new materials based on hydroxyapatite has undergone a great evolution in recent decades due to technological advances and development of computational techniques. 
  • 1.3K
  • 04 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Cell-Derived Vesicles for mRNA Delivery
The clinical translation of messenger mRNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics requires safe and effective delivery systems. Although considerable progress has been made on the development of mRNA delivery systems, many challenges, such as the dose-limiting toxicity and specific delivery to extrahepatic tissues, still remain. Cell-derived vesicles, a type of endogenous membranous particle secreted from living cells, can be leveraged to load mRNA during or after their biogenesis. They have received increasing interest for mRNA delivery due to their natural origin, good biocompatibility, cell-specific tropism, and unique ability to cross physiological barriers.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Nanocomposites with Cellulose Nanocrystals
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is one of the most promising substitutes for the petroleum-based polymers used in the packaging and biomedical fields due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, good stiffness, and strength, along with its good gas-barrier properties. One route to overcome some of the PHB’s weaknesses, such as its slow crystallization, brittleness, modest thermal stability, and low melt strength is the addition of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and the production of PHB/CNCs nanocomposites. Choosing the adequate processing technology for the fabrication of the PHB/CNCs nanocomposites and a suitable surface treatment for the CNCs are key factors in obtaining a good interfacial adhesion, superior thermal stability, and mechanical performances for the resulting nanocomposites. 
  • 1.3K
  • 20 May 2022
Topic Review
Hyaluronic Acid-Based Scaffolds
There are HA-based scaffolds that can be used in wound healing as potential bioactive dressings such as bandages, topical gels, microspheres, nanoparticles, hydrocolloids, foams, transdermal/matrix patches, etc. Hussain et al. reported HA-functionalized nanoparticles for the co-delivery of resveratrol and curcumin for chronic diabetic wound treatment. 
  • 1.3K
  • 14 Jul 2021
Topic Review
History of Cellulose in Science and Technology
In the history of cellulose chemistry, hydrogen bonding has been the predominant explanation when discussing intermolecular interactions between cellulose polymers. This is unfortunately the general consensus in scholarly textbooks and in many research articles, and it applies to several other biomacromolecules’ interactions as well. The amphiphilicity of cellulose and many other biopolymers, and thereby hydrophobic interactions, has to be taken into account to get a more complete picture.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 May 2023
Topic Review
Polydopamine-Coated Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles
Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have been extensively investigated due to their applications in various fields such as biomedicine, sensing, and environmental remediation. However, they need to be coated with a suitable material in order to make them biocompatible and to add new functionalities on their surface. Polydopamine is a highly biocompatible bioinspired material that can be easily deposited on various substrates with a good control on film thickness. The functional groups on its surface (catechol, carboxylic groups amine and imine) can be used to bind specific molecules or to load transition metal ions.
  • 1.3K
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Optical Waveguide Layers Fabrication Methods
Several eye-catching techniques have been developed to implement high-quality optical thin films for light-guiding applications. Thin films are the foundation for innovative technologies in various areas, including optical devices, environmental applications, telecommunications devices, and energy storage devices. The morphology and reliability of thin films are critical issues in all applications. Deposition techniques have a major influence on thin-film morphology. Physical and chemical deposition methods can be used to deposit high-quality thin films. A thin film is a thin layer of material with a thickness ranging from a few nm to a few μm. Thin films, like all materials, are classified as amorphous or polycrystalline based on the preparation conditions and the quality of the target material. Glass WGs display highly attractive properties due to the straightforward technology, the low propagation losses, and the flexible index matching to glass fibers. It is highly desirable to have low-loss glasses, reliable and enabling low-cost WG fabrication procedures. An overall requirement is that manufacturing technologies are proficient in high yield, and have guaranteed duplicability within the quantified tolerances, and fundamentally low operating costs.
  • 1.3K
  • 12 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Self-Healing Concrete
The production of cement accounts for 5 to 7% of carbon dioxide emissions in the world, and its broad-scale use contributes to climate imbalance. As a solution, biotechnology enables the cultivation of bacteria and fungi for the synthesis of calcium carbonate as one of the main constituents of cement. Through biomineralization, which is the initial driving force for the synthesis of compounds compatible with concrete, and crystallization, these compounds can be delivered to cracks in concrete. Microencapsulation is a method that serves as a clock to determine when crystallization is needed, which is assisted by control factors such as pH and aeration. 
  • 1.3K
  • 15 Feb 2023
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