Biomimetics is an emerging field of science that adapts the working principles from nature to fine-tune the engineering design aspects to mimic biological structure and functions. The application mainly focuses on the development of medical implants for hard and soft tissue replacements. Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is an established processing norm with a superior resolution and control over process parameters than conventional methods and has allowed the incessant amalgamation of biomimetics into material manufacturing, thereby improving the adaptation of biomaterials and implants into the human body. The conventional manufacturing practices had design restrictions that prevented mimicking the natural architecture of human tissues into material manufacturing. However, with additive manufacturing, the material construction happens layer-by-layer over multiple axes simultaneously, thus enabling finer control over material placement, thereby overcoming the design challenge that prevented developing complex human architectures. This review substantiates the dexterity of additive manufacturing in utilizing biomimetics to 3D print ceramic, polymer, and metal implants with excellent resemblance to natural tissue. It also cites some clinical references of experimental and commercial approaches employing biomimetic 3D printing of implants.

Tribocorrosion is getting more and more popular in biomaterials research. The synergism between wear and corrosion is creating deviations from the expected real-world results from individual corrosion or wear studies. The host body consisting of immune system and dissolved proteins makes them highly corrosive which makes the material selection a unique and challenging process for implant materials. The synergism between corrosion and wear leads to shorter implant life. The research on tribocorrosion has bought an insight into this phenomenon and presented ideas to arrest the premature failure of implants. This review focuses on the recent developments in tribocorrosion research and the effectiveness of remedial actions suggested by them. The influence of materials, processing methods and post-processing treatments are also reviewed in detail.