Polycaprolactone based Nanobiomaterials

Abstract

Polymeric biomaterials have been used extensively in the medical, personal care and pharmaceutical applications including drug delivery, artificial implants, and functional materials for tissue engineering, organ regeneration and food applications across disciplines. This chapter will emphasize polymers used in medicine and specifically those designed as scaffolds for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Nanocomposites have emerged in the last two decades as an efficient strategy to improve the structural and functional properties of most synthetic polymers. Aliphatic polyesters such as polylactide (PLA), poly(glycolides) (PGA), and poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) have attracted wide attention for their biodegradability and biocompatibility with the human body. A logic consequence has been the introduction of organic and inorganic nanofillers into biodegradable polymers to produce nanocomposites based on hydroxyapatite, metal, inorganic filler and clay nanoparticles or carbon nanostructures, in order to prepare new biomaterials with desired and more importantly tuned properties. In this chapter, different results on the fabrication of nanocomposites based on polycaprolactone (PCL) biomaterials for the specific fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery systems are presented. Different types of nanocomposites with polycaprolactone (PCL) and its copolymer are reported on, specifically their cytotoxicity or biocompatibility with improved mechanical properties and biodegradation. Several specific advantages of using PCL nanocomposites as biomaterials in selected applications are also highlighted. © 2012 Scrivener Publishing LLC.