Smart Biomimetic Coatings: Design, Properties and Biomedical Applications summarizes vital research in multifunctional (i.e., anti-corrosion, anti-fouling, and self-cleaning properties) surface coatings in various applications such as orthopedic and dental implants, tissue engineering, sensors and more. The book introduces biomimetic coatings, aiding understanding of highly complicated architectures in natural composites, along with discussions on the importance of proper mimicking to achieve composite materials with exceptional performance. The synthesis and unique properties of smart biomimetic coatings are detailed before a wide selection of biomedical applications is explored. This is an important reference of interest to researchers and R&D groups working in materials science, biomedical engineering, tissue engineering, and implant design. - Covers core principles, methods of synthesis, unique properties, and the pros and cons of biomimetic materials for coatings - Reviews a broad range of biomedical applications for biomimetic coatings, from drug delivery and sensors to anti-corrosion and orthopedics - Combines the principles of engineering, materials science, chemistry, and biology to provide an interdisciplinary overview of smart biomimetic coatings in biomedicine

Active Coatings for Smart Textiles presents the latest information on active materials and their application to textiles in the form of coatings and finishes for the purpose of improving performance and creating active functional effects. This important book provides detailed coverage of smart coating types, processes, and applications. After an introduction to the topic, Part One introduces various types of smart and active coatings, including memory polymer coatings, durable and self-cleaning coatings, and breathable coatings. Technologies and related processes for the application of coatings to textiles is the focus of Part Two, with chapters devoted to microencapsulation technology, plasma surface treatments, and nanotechnology-based treatments. The book ends with a section on applications of smart textiles with responsive coatings, which are increasingly finding commercial niches in sportswear, protective clothing, medical textiles, and architecture. - Introduces various types of smart and active coatings for textiles - Covers technologies and application processes for the coating and finishing of textiles - Reviews commercial applications of such coatings, including in sportswear, protective clothing, medical textiles and architecture

Robotics—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Robotics. The editors have built Robotics—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Robotics in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Robotics—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

This book discusses various fundamental aspects of polysaccharide based nano-biocarrier drug delivery systems and its application in the delivery of small molecules, proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides and genes. It also discusses advances in drug delivery systems in treatment of cancer, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and infectious diseases.

The Concise Encyclopedia of Biomedical Polymers and Polymeric Biomaterials presents new and selected content from the 11-volume Biomedical Polymers and Polymeric Biomaterials Encyclopedia. The carefully culled content includes groundbreaking work from the earlier published work as well as exclusive online material added since its publication in print. A diverse and global team of renowned scientists provide cutting edge information concerning polymers and polymeric biomaterials. Acknowledging the evolving nature of the field, the encyclopedia also features newly added content in areas such as tissue engineering, tissue repair and reconstruction, and biomimetic materials.

A significant proportion of modern medical technology has been developed through biomimetics, which is biologically inspired by studying pre-existing functioning systems in nature. Typical biomimetically inspired biomaterials include nano-biomaterials, smart biomaterials, hybrid biomaterials, nano-biocomposites, hierarchically porous biomaterials and tissue scaffolds. This important book summarises key research in this important field. The book is divided into two parts: Part one is devoted to the biomimetics of biomaterials themselves while part two provides overviews and case studies of tissue engineering applications from a biomimetics' perspective. The book has a strong focus on cutting edge biomimetically inspired biomaterials including chitin, hydrogels, calcium phosphates, biopolymers and anti-thrombotic coatings. Since many scaffolds for skin tissue engineering are biomimetically inspired, the book also has a strong focus on the biomimetics of tissue engineering in the repair of bone, skin, cartilage, soft tissue and specific organs. With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, Biomimetic biomaterials is a standard reference for both the biomaterials research community and clinicians involved in such areas as bone regeneration, skin tissue and wound repair.

A comprehensive and systematic treatment that focuses on surfaces and interfaces phenomena inhabited in biomimetic superhydrophobic materials, offering new fundamentals and novel insights. As such, this new book covers the natural surfaces, fundamentals, fabrication methods and exciting applications of superhydrophobic materials, with particular attention paid to the smart surfaces that can show switchable and reversible water wettability under external stimuli, such as pH, temperature, light, solvents, and electric fields. It also includes recent theoretical advances of superhydrophobic surfaces with regard to the wetting process, and some promising breakthroughs to promote this theory. As a result, materials scientists, physicists, physical chemists, chemical engineers, and biochemists will benefit greatly from a deeper understanding of this topic.

The synthetic counterparts of natural polymeric materials are now finding applications as light weight, mechanically strong, and environmentally stable sheets, fibers, films, adhesives, paints, and foams have replaced most of the commodity and structural materials. The systematic research on the preparation, characterization, and utilization of plastics resulted in creation of polymers often containing a set of several desirable properties in a single polymer. The polymers have established their place in engineering applications as well. Although the bulk of plastics production focuses on relatively simple commodity polymers, the proportion of specially designed and tailor-made plastics for specific and sophisticated applications is also increasing at a great pace. The specialty plastics, as well as their use in specific and sophisticated applications, are the key to the continued scientific growth and technological advances in the new millennium. This book thoroughly covers today's rapidly growing field of specialty polymers and their applications in more sophisticated and specialized areas. It gives the most recent in-depth knowledge and extremely comprehensive details of the chemistry, physics, material science, technology, and device applications of specialty polymers. This comprehensive book containing 16 chapters is the result of the untiring efforts of 35 most renowned experts from the national and international scientific community. This book is thought-provoking to the researchers working in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, medicine, polymer chemistry, semiconductor physics, material science, electrochemistry, biology, electronics, photonics, material science, solid state physics, nanotechnology, electrical and electronics engineering, optical engineering, device engineering, data storage, etc.

Polymer-based smart materials have become attractive in recent years due to the fact that polymers are flexible and provide many advantages compared to inorganic smart materials: they are low cost, they are easy to process, and they exhibit good performance at nano- and microscale levels. This volume focuses on a different class of polymers that are used as smart materials in the areas of biotechnology, medicine, and engineering. The volume aims to answer these questions: How do we distinguish ‘smart materials’? and How do they work? The chapters lay the groundwork for assimilation and exploitation of this technological advancement. Four of the key aspects of the approach that the authors have developed throughout this book are highlighted, namely the multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge, exploration of the relationships between multiple scales and their different behaviors, understanding that material properties are dictated at the smallest scale, and, therefore, the recognition that macroscale behavior can be controlled by nanoscale design.

The usage of building energy accounts for 30–40% of total energy consumption in developed countries, exceeding the amount for industry or transportation. Around 50% energy for building services is contributed by heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. More importantly, both building and HVAC energy consumptions are predicted to increase in the next two decades. Windows are considered as the least energy-efficient components of buildings. Therefore, smart windows are becoming increasingly important as they are capable of reducing HVAC energy usage by tuning the transmitted sunlight in a smart and favoured way: blocking solar irradiation on hot days, while letting it pass through on cold days. Compared with other type of smart windows, thermochromic windows have the unique advantages of cost-effectiveness, rational stimulus, and passive response. This book covers fabrication of vanadium dioxide–based smart windows, discusses various strategies to enhance their performance, and shares perspectives from the top scientists in this particular field.