Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
3
Carbon Nanotube-Based Materials—
Preparation, Biocompatibility, and
Applications in Dentistry
Mrinal Bhattacharya
a
and Wook-Jin Seong
b
a
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA
b
Division of Prosthodontics, Department of Restorative Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN, USA
CHAPTER OUTLINE
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 37
3.2 Preparation of CNT composites ....................................................................................................... 38
3.2.1 Melt processing of CNT composites .............................................................................. 40
3.2.2 Solution processing of CNT composites ........................................................................ 42
3.2.3 In situ polymerization technique .................................................................................. 42
3.2.4 Electrospinning .......................................................................................................... 43
3.2.5 Layer-by-layer assembly .............................................................................................. 46
3.3 Conductivity................................................................................................................................... 47
3.4 CNT cytotoxicity............................................................................................................................. 48
3.5 CNT applications in dentistry .......................................................................................................... 50
3.5.1 Dental restorative materials ......................................................................................... 50
3.5.2 Bony defect replacement therapy ................................................................................. 52
3.5.3 Protein, gene, and drug delivery................................................................................... 54
3.6 Summary and conclusions .............................................................................................................. 56
References ........................................................................................................................................... 56
3.1
Introduction
Carbon has the unique ability to assume a wide variety of different structures and forms. At the
atomic scale, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hexagonal sheets of graphite wrapped into single or
multiple sheets. They have unique mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties that derive from
the special property of carbon bond, their cylindrical symmetry, and their unique one-dimensional
(1D) nature. Nanotubes can also be metallic or semiconducting depending on their chirality. They
