Biomedical Application Opportunities of Nano-Sized Polymers

The effect of concentration ratio of the blend components on the formation of 3-D network was also studied using the same model system PVA/PETG [37]. 

Biomedical Application Opportunities of Nano-Sized Polymers 

In addition to the technical and commodity applications [38], another important opportunity for the application of the polymer nano-sized materials is their use for biomedical purposes. As mentioned in the Section 9.1, organ transplantation nowadays practically has no technical problems - the main problem is the lack of donors, and this problem is solved by the tissue engineering. The latter uses scaffolds from polymer materials with specific properties formulated at the beginning of the chapter. 

What could be the next challenge The first could be improvement of the mechanical performance of the final nano-sized materials. As demonstrated above, in the cases when H-bonding in polymer blends exists, the final nanomorphology is similar to the 3-D nanofibriiiar network, which does not possess the superior mechanical properties of noninterconnected nanofibrils. Scaffolds with high mechanical performance (e.g., for bones and tendons repair) are frequently needed in tissue engineering, possibly prepared with the use of water only as a solvent. 

It should be mentioned that similar approach has been used by Kotek and coworkers [28-30] for suppression of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding in polyamides in order to achieve better molecular orientation making it possible to prepare Nylon filaments with superior mechanical properties. 

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