Functional Nanomaterials on 2D Surfaces and in 3D Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

An emerging approach to improve the physicobiochemical properties and the multifunctionality of biomaterials is to incorporate functional nanomaterials (NMs) onto 2D surfaces and into 3D hydrogel networks. This approach is starting to generate promising advanced functional materials such as self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) and nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels of NMs with remarkable properties and tailored functionalities that are beneficial for a variety of biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and developing biosensors. A wide range of NMs, such as carbon‐, metal‐, and silica‐based NMs, can be integrated into 2D and 3D biomaterial formulations due to their unique characteristics, such as magnetic properties, electrical properties, stimuli responsiveness, hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity, and chemical composition. The highly ordered nano‐ or microscale assemblies of NMs on surfaces alter the original properties of the NMs and add enhanced and/or synergetic and novel features to the final SAMs of the NM constructs. Furthermore, the incorporation of NMs into polymeric hydrogel networks reinforces the (soft) polymer matrix such that the formed NC hydrogels show extraordinary mechanical properties with superior biological properties.

Injectable polymer/nanomaterial composites for the fabrication of three-dimensional biomaterial scaffolds

“…Furthermore, the nanomaterials embedded into the PDMS added a roughness to the PDMS surfaces, which allows for a larger number of contact points between the cells and the PDMS/nanomaterial surfaces. This results in even more efficient interactions and cell adhesion onto the PDMS/nanomaterial composite surfaces, as has been demonstrated previously [26][27][28][29].…”

Bifunctional nanomaterials for simultaneously improving cell adhesion and affecting bacterial biofilm formation on silicon-based surfaces

“…For example, we found almost 4.0, 3.5, 3.4, and 2.7 times more cells on P5(P4), P3, P2, and P1 than on P0 after 1 d of incubation. This result indicates that nanomaterials (here, PMOs) affect cell adhesion and proliferation due to their large surface areas, which allow a greater number of contact points between cells and the PMO surfaces, producing better cell adhesion and subsequent cell proliferation, as described in the literature [55][56][57][58]. At the longer incubation time of 7 d, the differences in cell adhesion and proliferation between the non-PMO coated PDMS and the coated PDMS materials had changed somewhat.…”

Hyaluronic acid/gelatin microcapsule functionalized with carbon nanotube through laccase‐catalyzed crosslinking for fabrication of cardiac microtissue

“…In fact, for cell attachment, in addition to the possible availability of cell‐adhesive ligands, the cells tend to attach to surfaces with water contact angels in the interval of 60°–80° 22,28,40–42 . This method is a straightforward indicator of the polymer network hydrophilicity and the relative crosslinking density since stiffer networks typically exhibit higher contact angles 41,43 . The water contact angle of HA‐Ph hydrogel was lower than 24° which is due to its high molecular weight and the existence of many hydrophilic functional groups such as COOH and OH in its backbone (Figure 5A).…”