Smart Materials in Medicine

A number of kinds of active dressings have been developed that take advantage of surface and/or colloidal principles and systems. Some of them are fairly simple. For example, silver-coated fibres have been used to contribute antimicrobial and antifungal properties into bioactive fibre bandages, which work through direct contact with wound exudate [48,49]. 

One example of such smart textile applications is in health monitoring [50]. Placement of electrically conducting fibres in smart material clothing can be 

Finally, reference was made to nanomaterials in diagnostics in Section 14.5, whereas smart nanomaterials are being developed that can go one step further by providing detection of a diseased condition and localized release of a therapeutic agent for that condition [52]. 

and Dahanayake, M. (2000) Industrial Utilization of Surfactants, AOCS Press, Champaign, IL. 

Israelachvili, J.N. (1992) Intermolecular and Surface Forces, 2nd edn. Academic Press, New York. 

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