Biomaterials for Drug Delivery: Sources, Classification, Synthesis, Processing, and Applications

A way to avoid or minimize the side effect that could result in drug delivery to cells with increased efficiency and performance in the health rehabilitation process is to use biocompatible and biodegradable drug carriers. These are essentially biomaterials that are metallic, ceramic, or polymeric in nature. The sources of these materials must be biological in its entire ramification. The classification, synthesis, processing, and the applications to which these materials are put are the essential components of having suitable target cell drug carriers. This chapter will be devoted to discussing biomaterials suitable as drug carrier for use in the health-related matters of rehabilitation.

Optimization of MEMS Actuator Driven by Shape Memory Alloy Thin Film Phase Change

At the microscale, shape memory alloy (SMA) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) bimorph actuators offer great potential based on their inherently high work density. An optimization problem relating to the deflection and curvature based on shape memory MEMS bimorph was identified, formulated, and solved. Thicknesses of the SU-8 photoresist and nickel-titanium alloy (NiTi) was identified that yielded maximum deflections and curvature radius based on a relationship among individual layer thicknesses, elastic modulus, and cantilever length. This model should serve as a guideline for optimal NiTi and SU-8 thicknesses to drive large deflections and curvature radius that are most suitable for microrobotic actuation, micromirrors, micropumps, and microgrippers. This model would also be extensible to other phase-change-driven actuators where nonlinear and significant residual stress changes are used to drive actuation.

Progress, Challenges and Opportunities in Divalent Transition Metal-Doped Cobalt Ferrites Nanoparticles Applications

Engineered nanomaterials with tailored properties are highly required in a wide range of industrial fields. Consequently, the researches dedicated to the identification of new applications for existing materials and to the development of novel promising materials and cost effective, eco-friendly synthesis methods gained considerable attention in the last years. Cobalt ferrite is one of the nanomaterials with a wide application range due to its unique properties such as high electrical resistivity, negligible eddy current loss, moderate saturation magnetization, chemical and thermal stability, high Curie temperature and high mechanical hardness. Moreover, its structural, magnetic and electrical properties can be tailored by the selection of preparation route, chemical composition, dopant ions and thermal treatment. This chapter presents the recent applications of nanosized cobalt ferrites doped or co-doped with divalent transition ions such as Zn2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, Cd2+ obtained by various synthesis methods in ceramics, medicine, catalysis, electronics and communications.

A Novel MDD-Based BEM Model for Transient 3T Nonlinear Thermal Stresses in FGA Smart Structures

The main objective of this chapter is to introduce a novel memory-dependent derivative (MDD) model based on the boundary element method (BEM) for solving transient three-temperature (3T) nonlinear thermal stress problems in functionally graded anisotropic (FGA) smart structures. The governing equations of the considered study are nonlinear and very difficult if not impossible to solve analytically. Therefore, we develop a new boundary element scheme for solving such equations. The numerical results are presented highlighting the effects of the MDD on the temperatures and nonlinear thermal stress distributions and also the effect of anisotropy on the nonlinear thermal stress distributions in FGA smart structures. The numerical results also verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed methodology. The computing performance of the proposed model has been performed using communication-avoiding Arnoldi procedure. We can conclude that the results of this chapter contribute to increase our understanding on the FGA smart structures. Consequently, the results also contribute to the further development of technological and industrial applications of FGA smart structures of various characteristics.

Smart E-Textile Materials

Smart textiles are one of the areas that provides added value to textile materials. It is a sector that has been developed with new technologies, new fibers, and textile materials. The production of smart or intelligent textiles cooperate with other branches of science like nanotechnology, materials science, design, electronics, and computer engineering, etc. Smart textiles are classified into three groups as passive smart textiles, active smart textiles and ultra smart textiles according to their performance characteristics. Passive smart textiles are the first generation of smart textiles and sense the external conditions; for instance, UV protecting clothing, conductive fibers, etc. As active smart textiles respond to external conditions, ultra smart textiles sense, react, and adopt themselves to conditions. Shape memory materials, chromic materials, heat storage, and thermo-regulated fabrics are the typical applications of active smart textiles.

Transition Metal Chalcogenides for the Electrocatalysis of Water

Sustainable energy technology has received enormous attention in recent years. Specifically, electrochemical water splitting is considered to be the cleanest technique for the production of promising fuels, for example, hydrogen and oxygen, where transition metal (di)chalcogenides (TMCs) as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have been a growing interest. In this chapter, the typical preparation methods of TMCs such as chemical vapor phase deposition (CVD) and solvothermal synthesis are introduced. Then, several TMC materials for catalyzing HER and OER are reviewed. Most importantly, this chapter also introduced some in situ approaches to realize the mechanism of electrocatalytic behavior toward HER and OER. Finally, the conclusion and futuristic prospects of TMCs in HER and OER are discussed.

Fabrication and Characterization of Nanoscale Shape Memory Alloy MEMS Actuators

The miniaturization of engineering devices has created interest in new actuation methods capable of large displacements and high frequency responses. Shape memory alloy (SMA) thin films have exhibited one of the highest power densities of any material used in these actuation schemes and can thermally recovery strains of up to 10%. Homogenous SMA films can experience reversible shape memory effect, but without some sort of physical biasing mechanism, the effect is only one-way. SMA films mated in a multi-layer stack have the appealing feature of an intrinsic two-way shape memory effect (SME). In this work, we developed a near-equiatomic NiTi magnetron co-sputtering process and characterized shape memory effects. We mated these SMA films in several “bimorph” configurations to induce out of plane curvature in the low-temperature Martensite phase. We quantify the curvature radius vs. temperature on MEMS device structures to elucidate a relationship between residual stress, recovery stress, radius of curvature, and degree of unfolding. We fabricated and tested laser-irradiated and joule heated SMA MEMS actuators to enable rapid actuation of NiTi MEMS devices, demonstrating some of the lowest powers (5–15 mW) and operating frequencies (1–3 kHz) ever reported for SMA or other thermal actuators.

SeDeM-ODT Expert System: A Solution to Challenges in Characterization of Pharmaceutical Powders and Powdered Material

In the field of pharmaceutical sciences, material characterization has been a focus of research as properties of the powder ingredients govern characteristics of the finished dosage form. It has been a tedious and time-consuming job to develop a correlation between the characteristics of powder material and final dosage form. Extensive experimentation is carried out at different stages of formulation development to optimize the final blend and produce a product fulfilling official requirements. Various approaches have been applied for the purpose with varying degree of applications. SeDeM-ODT expert system is a novel pre-formulation technique developed for characterization of powder material of varying nature. Experimental and quantitative determination of various parameters provides a basis for SeDeM-ODT expert system. The system predicts suitability of powder material (APIs and excipients) for tablet preparation by direct compression technology and disintegration behavior of the resultant dosage form. It provides a basis for selection of excipients, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The present study covers area of powder characterization at pre-formulation level of pharmaceutical product development. SeDeM-ODT expert system reduces lead time for pre-formulation studies and provides formulations with minimum number of excipients. SeDeM-ODT expert system has been successfully applied for material characterization (APIs and excipients) before processing and after processing.

Advanced Carbon Functional Materials for Superior Energy Storage

In the developing world, energy crisis is the main reason for less progress and development. Renewable and sustainable energy may be of bright future for scientific lagging and low-income countries; further, sustainability through smart materials got a huge potential; so, hereby keeping in view the energy crisis which the developing world is facing for many decades, we are proposing to write a chapter project for obtaining energy through cheap, sustainable, and functional advanced carbon materials. Carbon materials are the future of energy storage devices because of their ability to store energy in great capacity. The graphene is a material with amazing properties like no band gap, which turns graphene a wonderful candidate for use in the photovoltaic. Shortly, this chapter will discuss how superior energy storage may be obtained through various routes like using pyrrolic (N5) and pyridinic (N6) doping in advanced carbon functional materials, or superior energy by KOH activation in carbon materials, or through carbonization in organic matter, respectively. Further, for the advanced carbon functional materials, the superior energy storage using pyrrolic (N5) and pyridinic (N6) doping, or KOH activation, or through carbonization will be discussed one by one for lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, and relevant energy devices, respectively.

Self-Healing Concrete and Cementitious Materials

Concrete is one of the most used materials in the world with robust applications and increasing demand. Despite considerable advancement in concrete and cementitious materials over last centuries, infrastructure built in the present world with these materials, such as dams, roads, bridges, tunnels and buildings requires intensive repair and maintenance throughout its design life. Self-healing concrete and cementitious materials, which have the ability to recover after initial damage, have the potential to address these challenges. Self-healing technology in concrete and cementitious materials can mitigate the unnecessary repair and maintenance of built infrastructure as well as overall CO2 emission due to cement production. This chapter provides the state-of-the-art of self-healing concrete and cementitious materials, mainly focusing on autogenic or intrinsic self-healing using fibre, shrinkable polymers, minerals and supplementary cementitious materials, and autonomic self-healing using non-traditional concrete materials such as microscale to macroscale capsule as well as vascular systems with polymeric, mineral and bacterial agents.