Conducting Polymer-Based Composite Materials for Therapeutic Implantations: From Advanced Drug Delivery System to Minimally Invasive Electronics

Abstract

Conducting polymer-based composites have recently becoming popular in both academic research and industrial practices due to their high conductivity, ease of process, and tunable electrical properties. The multifunctional conducting polymer-based composites demonstrated great application potential for in vivo therapeutics and implantable electronics, including drug delivery, neural interfacing, and minimally invasive electronics. In this review article, the state-of-the-art conducting polymerbased composites in the mentioned biological fields are discussed and summarized. The recent progress on the synthesis, structure, properties, and application of the conducting polymer-based composites is presented, aimed at revealing the structure-property relationship and the corresponding functional applications of the conducting polymer-based composites. Furthermore, key issues and challenges regarding the implantation performance of these composites are highlighted in this paper.An efficient drug delivery system that can deliver the drug to targeted body sites and control the drug release rate precisely is able to improve the therapeutic outcomes and reduce the side effects [36,37]. Structuring such drug delivery systems has been long dreamed of and became more and more practical with the development of a variety of polymer-based delivery systems. From nonbiodegradable diffusion-controlled membranes [38] to biodegradable systems with a combination of diffusion and polymer matrix degradation [39], the polymer-based delivery system has shown enormous benefits in drug delivery and release. And since the 1980s, an effective and intelligent drug delivery system based on the ICPs has been developed [40,41]. Resulting from their inherent electrical, magnetic, and optical properties, the ICPs, especially their composites, are 2

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