Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
applied physics, chemistry, materials science, and computational
modeling [3]. Broadly speaking, nanotechnology is the development
and use of techniques to construct structures in the physical size
range of 1-100 nanometers (nm), as well as the incorporation of
these structures into applications. Now, nanotechnology is entering
many industry sectors including energy, electronics, aerospace as
well as medicine.
Nanoscience and nanotechnologies are not new. Size-dependent
properties have been exploited for centuries. For example, Au and
Ag nanoparticles have been used as colored pigments in stained
glass and ceramics since the 10
th
century AD. Many chemicals
and chemical processes have nanoscale features and, for example,
chemists have been making polymers (large molecules made up of
nanoscalar subunits) for many decades. But now, due to imaging
techniques like the scanning tunneling microscope and the atomic
force microscope, the understanding of the nanoworld has improved
considerably [14, 16].
During the past few years, interest in the study of bionanostruc-
ture materials has been increasing at an accelerating rate, stimulated
by recent advances in materials synthesis and characterization
techniques and the realization that these materials exhibit many
interesting and unexpected properties with a number of potential
technological applications [6, 18, 40, 52]. Nanotechnology provides
the tools and technology platforms for the investigation and
transformation of biological systems, and biology offers inspiration
models and bio-assembled components to nanotechnology [21].
For example, the London Centre for Nanotechnology has a wide
range of bionanotechnology and health care research programs:
bionanoparticles, bionanosensors, biocompatible nanomaterials,
advanced medical imaging, technologies for diagnosis, self-
assembled biostructures, degenerative disease studies, molecular
simulation, lab on a chip and screening, drug screening technologies,
and molecular simulation.
Application of new materials such as biomaterials and implants
increases steadily. However not all replacement systems have
provided trouble-free service. In dental implants the rate of success
is 96-98%, which, by millions of implants, gives a signiicant number
of patients in trouble [2]. Therefore, in a failure-free replacement
system, no particulate or corrosion debris would be generated and
no loosing of the implant components should occur. The source of
