Recently Emerging Trends in Magnetic Polymer Hydrogel Nanoarchitectures
Christopher Igwe Idumah
Abstract
Magnetic hydrogels (MHDG) are composites that are biocompatible, biodegradable, magnetically responsive, and characterized by type, concentration, geometry, and degree of uniformity of magnetic particulates, and hydrogels (HDG) used in fabrication. Nowadays, magnetically responsive smart hydrogels (MHDG) have been utilized in biomedicals and attainment of functional architectures. Furthermore, MHDG has been utilized as effective drug targeting and releasing tools. Hence, this paper gives brief insight into HDG evolution till the designing and development of MHDG; elaborates on MHDG relative to fundamental concepts concerning superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticulates, along with the fabrication and characterization of magneto-responsive HDG. Furthermore, critical uses of MHDG for drug conveyance, tissue engineering, cancer therapy, and environmental parameters are elucidated. This is capped with highlights on the challenges and future prospective of MHDG for 3-D and 4-D printing.