Intelligent and smart biomaterials for sustainable 3D printing applications

Abstract

Smart and intelligent biomaterials can be designed to carry out special tasks in modern medicine and sustainability, and engineered to identify and respond to environmental stimuli. Therefore, intelligent biomaterials have a large number of applications that can go from health (e.g. tissue engineering, drug delivery and biosensors), to more recently explored environmental applications involving ecosystem restoration (e.g. coral reefs and environmental remediation). The use of 3D printing technology opens the vision towards automated biomanufacturing with more precision and definition. With this broad range of applications, smart and intelligent biomaterials are used separately or in combination with 3D printing to enable the design of eco-friendly and sustainable solutions that can be used to overcome challenges for both; modern medicine and the environment.