Natural and synthetic polymers for designing composite materials

Abstract

Since the 1920s when Hermann Staudinger pioneered theories on “macromolecules,” covering both natural and synthetic polymers, this concept captured the imagination of chemists to design a wide range of molecular architectures of polymeric materials with fascinating and innovative applications. Polymers were first used in medicine as biomaterials in the 1950s for cornea replacement and as blood vessel replacement. Polymeric biomaterials offer a large diversity as matrix and inclusion materials in the development of biocompatible biostable, biodegradable, or bioresorbable polymeric biocomposite materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Natural polymers are considered as the first biodegradable biomaterials used in biomedical applications. Synthetic biostable polymers of the first generation of biomaterials were selected to provide mechanical support and minimize the host response of the related biomaterials. Biodegradable polymers have been utilized to develop biocompatible biomaterials with tuned degradability and certain structure–function relationship. The last generation of biomaterials for medical applications aims the design from biomimetic to bioinspired synthetic composite materials and systems with dynamic behavior and controlled properties, capable of inducing biological responses that mimic natural structures and processes, based on supramolecular self-assembled and smart polymer approach. Biocomposite polymer materials can be fabricated utilizing different techniques, the selection of the most appropriate being influenced by the desired application, the particularity of the type of filler (particles and fibers of different dimensions, laminae, or voids), and matrix (natural polymers, thermoplastic or thermosetting synthetic polymers), at different scale length.