Biosmart Materials and Its Innovative Characteristics in Protective Composite Coating Application

Abstract

Smart materials are advanced materials capable of changing into a useful, reproducible, predictable, and often reversible way when external stimuli such as stress, light, moisture, heat, pH, electric, and magnetic fields are applied. When the external stimulus is removed from these materials, they revert to their original form by reversing their original response. Smart materials are capable of altering one or more of their properties in a non-destructive way in response to certain stimuli – and by doing so, become functional in some useful way or the other. Recent work and advancements in smart materials have led scientists to develop advanced materials in the bio-medical field. Biosmart materials currently enjoy a wide range of applications in dentistry, orthopedics, and prosthetics. Examples of these materials include Smart Ceramics, Smart Composites, Self-healing composites, Nickel-Titanium Alloy, Shape Memory Alloy, Smart Sutures, Glass Ionomers and many others. This review paper first provides an overview of bio smart materials – types, classes, characteristics, and applications – it then focuses on the specific area of the development of protective or smart coating for bio smart materials. It discusses some of the progress and advancements that have been made in this area.