Advances in bionanocomposites for biomedical applications

Bionanocomposites possess exceptional mechanical strength and bioactivity, which makes them a valuable candidate for various tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. The unique combination of hard and soft components in an engineered bionanocomposite resembles the amalgamation of different components in naturally tissues. Some of the greatest challenge in the designing of bionanocomposites for tissue regeneration and biomedical applications is to have high mechanical strength coupled with biocompatibility, bioactivity, and hierarchical structure of natural tissue. Several biopolymers have been combined with nanofillers in different categories such as silicate-based materials such as clays and silica nanoparticles, ceramics such as nanohydroxyapatite, inorganic nanoparticles, synthetic layered double hydroxides, carbon-based nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, and metal/metal oxides. Because of the extraordinary mechanical properties of bionanocomposites, much interest lies in mimicking the bone structure such as dental implants and other orthopedic applications, as they allow for multilevel integration of material, structural, and biological properties constituted by the polymer and nanofiller combination. Presence of nanosized fillers in bionanocomposites makes them ideally suited for drug delivery, as they usually present torturous diffusion path for encapsulated small molecule/drug forming effective barrier and sustained delivery. Furthermore, drug releasing bionanocomposites are highly suited for wound dressing applications, as they have high water uptake and noncytotoxicity together, high mucoadhesivity, and tear resistance making them ideal as wound dressing. The developments of bionanocomposites provide new avenues for fulfilling certain needs of the emerging technologies in matrix formation, tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and wound dressing and will be instrumental in accelerating evolution of new therapeutics.