During the last century and a half, new families of engineering materials known as polymers have been discovered and produced, that have not only challenged the classical materials but have also ma...

A large number of recent studies deal with the application of nano materials to different medicine areas, application that led to a new discipline known as nanomedicine. It comprises the processes of diagnosing, treating, curing, preventing diseases and also dealing with traumatic injury, relieving pain and preserving/improving human health by using nano materials. Among nano materials, an important place belongs to the group of natural and synthetic polymer nanocomposites. These are made up of an organic polymer matrix and a mineral, organic or metallic nanofiller. The properties of polymer nanocomposites depend on the characteristics of the components and on the interaction polymer-nanofiller. Polymer nanocomposites offer to modern medicine new opportunities for generate products for antibacterial treatment, tissues engineering, cancer therapy, medical imaging, dental applications, drug delivery, etc.

Synthetic polymers, biopolymers, and their nanocomposites are being studied, and some of them are already used in different medical areas. Among the synthetic ones that can be mentioned are polyolefins, fluorinated polymers, polyesters, silicones, and others. Biopolymers such as polysaccharides (chitosan, hyaluronic acid, starch, cellulose, alginates) and proteins (silk, fibroin) have also become widely used and investigated for applications in medicine. Besides synthetic polymers and biopolymers, their nanocomposites, which are hybrids formed by a macromolecular matrix and a nanofiller (mineral or organic), have attracted great attention in the last decades in medicine and in other fields due to their outstanding properties. This review covers studies done recently using the polymers, biopolymers, nanocomposites, polymer micelles, nanomicelles, polymer hydrogels, nanogels, polymersomes, and liposomes used in medicine as drugs or drug carriers for cancer therapy and underlines their responses to internal and external stimuli able to make them more active and efficient. They are able to replace conventional cancer drug carriers, with better results.

Flammability tests were conducted on energy-storing wallboard—ordinary gypsum wallboard impregnated with approximately 24% organic phase change material (PCM). Such wallboard is able to store or release a significant amount of thermal energy. The major energy storage factor is the latent heat of the PCM, which is endothermic as PCM melts and exothermic as it crystallizes. A short presentation of the results obtained in the evaluation of such wallboard points out that flammability tests represent almost the last stage in this evaluation. The flammability tests evaluated the surface burning characteristics: flame spread and smoke development classifications determined in a Steiner tunnel, as well as heat and smoke release rates determined by cone calorimeter. The tests indicated that the energy-storing wallboard does not meet all requirements in the National Building Code regarding fire characteristics for building materials. Therefore, the possibility of reducing its flammability is discussed. Comparison o...

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a thermoplastic synthetic polymer, which, unlike many synthetic polymers, is not obtained by polymerization, but by hydrolysis of poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc). Due to the presence of hydroxylic groups, hydrophilic polymers such as PVA and its composites made mainly with biopolymers are used for producing hydrogels that possess interesting morphological and physico-mechanical features. PVA hydrogels and other PVA composites are studied in light of their numerous application for electrical film membranes for chemical separation, element and dye removal, adsorption of metal ions, fuel cells, and packaging. Aside from applications in the engineering field, PVA, like other synthetic polymers, has applications in medicine and biological areas and has become one of the principal objectives of the researchers in the polymer domain. The review presents a few recent applications of PVA composites and contributions related to tissue engineering (repair and regeneration), drug carriers, and wound healing.

Lignin is a biopolymer and one of the main constituents of woody plants where it plays the role of lining agent and is comparable in this respect to cement in steel reinforced concrete. Polymer nanocomposites containing biopolymers such as cellulose, lignin, starch, proteins, etc. are the object of recent numerous studies and are known also as bio-nanocomposites. This paper deals with lignin use in various polymer nanocomposites. It presents the preparation and uses of nanolignin as a filler and lignin uses as a matrix or a matrix component in polymer nanocomposites.