Biomedical applications, ferroelectric

D. De Rossi and P. Dario. Biomedical applications of piezoelectric and pyroelectric potymen, Ferroelectrics 49 49 (1983). 

Inorganic nanoflllers such as clays or ceramics may improve mechanical properties and dielectric properties. An abundant literature has been devoted to layered silicates for applications in the biomedical domain, hydroxyapatite (HAp e.g., nanoparticles of 300 nm in Figure 13.1a) might be of interest. Ferroelectric ceramics are attractive for their high dielectric permittivity and electroactive properties. As an example, BaTiOa particles with d 700 nm are shown in Figure 13.1b. Conductive nanoparticles should induce electrical conductivity in polymeric matrices, but to preserve the mechanical properties, small amount should be used. Consequently, there is great interest in conductive nanotubes [i.e., carbon nanotubes (CNTs)], which exhibit the highest... 

Tajitsu, Y. (2008) Piezoelectricity of Chiral Polymeric Fiber and its Application in Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions of Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 55, 1000-8. 

Another strong area of technology devetopoKnt has been in the field of ultrasonics, with specific application to biomedical uses. There is a wide variety of devices that have featured ferroelectric polymers for this area. Included are needle hydrophones and probes,... 

The rest of this chapter is structured as follows. Section 5.2 gives a brief historical overview together with a description of the synthesis, structure and preparation of ferroelectric polymers. Section 5.3 defines the properties required to evaluate these materials, and includes typical values and brief accounts of the measurement methods. Section 5.4 details the applications of ferroelectric polymers, covering sound transducers, biomedical, pyroelectric and mechanical applications. Conclusions are briefly described in section 5,5. 

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