A brief review reporting the recent advances on the carbon nanostructured materials-based sensors covering recently published works is presented. Several works dealing with experimental and theoretical data are reviewed and discussed. The main results for carbon nanotubes, nanodiamonds, fullerene, graphene, and hybrid carbon-nanostructured devices that show sensing properties in different fields were considered for the discussions. The goal of this paper was to highlight sensor mechanisms, and the best results reached up to now are creating bases for further applications.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have remarkable mechanical, thermal, electronic, and biological properties due to their particular atomic structure made of graphene sheets that are rolled into cylindrical tubes. Due to their outstanding properties, CNTs have been used in several technological fields. Currently, the most prominent research area of CNTs focuses on biomedical applications, using these materials to produce hybrid biosensors, drug delivery systems, and high performance composites for implants. Although a great number of research studies have already shown the advantages of CNT-based biomedical devices, their clinical use for in vivo application has not been consummated. Concerns related to their toxicity, biosafety, and biodegradation still remain. The effect of CNTs on the human body and the ecosystem is not well established, especially due to the lack of standardization of toxicological tests, which generate contradictions in the results. CNTs’ toxicity must be clarified to enable the medical use of these exceptional materials in the near future. In this review, we summarize recent advances in developing biosensors, drug delivery systems, and implants using CNTs as smart biomaterials to identify pathogens, load/deliver drugs and enhance the mechanical and antimicrobial performance of implants.

The demands for dental materials continue to grow, driven by the desire to reach a better performance than currently achieved by the available materials. In the dental restorative ceramic field, the structures evolved from the metal-ceramic systems to highly translucent multilayered zirconia, aiming not only for tailored mechanical properties but also for the aesthetics to mimic natural teeth. Ceramics are widely used in prosthetic dentistry due to their attractive clinical properties, including high strength, biocompatibility, chemical stability, and a good combination of optical properties. Metal-ceramics type has always been the golden standard of dental reconstruction. However, this system lacks aesthetic aspects. For this reason, efforts are made to develop materials that met both the mechanical features necessary for the safe performance of the restoration as well as the aesthetic aspects, aiming for a beautiful smile. In this field, glass and high-strength core ceramics have been highly investigated for applications in dental restoration due to their excellent combination of mechanical properties and translucency. However, since these are recent materials when compared with the metal-ceramic system, many studies are still required to guarantee the quality and longevity of these systems. Therefore, a background on available dental materials properties is a starting point to provoke a discussion on the development of potential alternatives to rehabilitate lost hard and soft tissue structures with ceramic-based tooth and implant-supported reconstructions. This review aims to bring the most recent materials research of the two major categories of ceramic restorations: ceramic-metal system and all-ceramic restorations. The practical aspects are herein presented regarding the evolution and development of materials, technologies applications, strength, color, and aesthetics. A trend was observed to use high-strength core ceramics type due to their ability to be manufactured by CAD/CAM technology. In addition, the impacts of COVID-19 on the market of dental restorative ceramics are presented.

Cases of respiratory diseases have been increasing around the world, affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people every year.

Behavior studies of thermoplastic polymers during non-isothermal crystallization are extremely important since most of their properties are influenced by degree of crystallinity and the crystallization process. In general, an approach based on a model-fitting method is used to perform crystallization kinetic studies. Due to their inability to uniquely determine the reaction mode, many studies have used the isoconversional method, where it is not necessary to assume a crystallization model to obtain the kinetic parameters. Therefore, in this work, the influence of acid and octadecylamine functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the crystallization kinetic of polyethylene (PE) was studied using an isoconversional method with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The kinetic parameters and the crystallization model were determined. The incorporation of functionalized and non-functionalized CNTs into PE did not change the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami crystallization model. However, the CNTs increased the crystallization temperature and reduced the activation energy for crystallization. In addition, the Avrami coefficient values were lower for the nanocomposites when compared to pure PE. The incorporation of CNTs accelerated the crystallization of PE, reducing the crystallite sizes and modifying their morphology.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) is a widely studied polymer and it has been found that porous PHBV materials are suitable for substrates for cell cultures. A crucial factor for scaffolds designed for tissue engineering is the water uptake. This property influences the transport of water and nutrients into the scaffold, which promotes cell growth. PHBV has significant hydrophobicity, which can harm the production of cells. Thus, the addition of α-wollastonite (WOL) can modify the PHBV scaffold’s water uptake. To our knowledge, a kinetics study of water uptake of α-wollastonite phase powder and the PHBV matrix has not been reported. In this work, PHBV and WOL, (PHBV/WOL) films were produced with 0, 5, 10, and 20 wt % of WOL. Films were characterized, and the best concentrations were chosen to produce PHBV/WOL scaffolds. The addition of WOL in concentrations up to 10 wt % increased the cell viability of the films. MTT analysis showed that PHBV/5%WOL and PHBV/10%WOL obtained cell viability of 80% and 98%, respectively. Therefore, scaffolds with 0, 5 and 10 wt % of WOL were fabricated by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). Scaffolds were characterized with respect to morphology and water uptake in assay for 65 days. The scaffold with 10 wt % of WOL absorbed 44.1% more water than neat PHBV scaffold, and also presented a different kinetic mechanism when compared to other samples. Accordingly, PHBV/WOL scaffolds were shown to be potential candidates for biological applications.