Recent trends in smart polymeric coatings in biomedicine and drug delivery applications

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to shine a light on the research being done on smart polymers within biomedicine and, more specifically, for drug delivering applications. There are several triggering mechanisms that smart polymers react to in order to release or suppress the delivery of drugs, including responsiveness to certain stimuli such as temperature, pH, light, electric field, magnetic field, ultrasound, and enzymes. Each of these types of stimuli and their responses within smart polymers will be covered in this chapter. The processing methods for the various forms that these smart polymers take (e.g., hydrogels, nanoassemblies and nanoparticles, nanofibers, and bioconjugates), as well as their characterization methods will also be discussed.