Preface : Emergent Materials

Abstract

Since its foundation in 2018, Emergent Materials aimed to focus on evolving techniques/technologies for advanced materials in a wide variety of fields such as polymer science, composites, electronics, membranes, and nano-materials/devices. A popular research area in that respect is biomaterials for medical and biological applications. Therefore, we decided the topic of the first special issue in our journal as Biomaterials. Biomaterial is a biological or a synthetic substance, which can be introduced into the body as part of an implanted medical device or used to replace a diseased tissue or an organ. Biomaterials are also used in therapeutic applications such as targeted drug delivery via nano-materials. Therefore, biomaterials vary in size from sub-nano, all the way to whole organ size depending on the application. Biocompatibility is enhanced by incorporation of live cells, an approach known as regenerative medicine or tissue engineering. Despite the substantial potential, there is scarcity of medical applications with biomaterials. This is due to absence of efficient techniques for production of advanced biomaterials. Major challenges to overcome include a decent understanding of the interactions among biological materials, polymers, and natural compounds as well as inorganic materials. Despite recent technological and scientific developments in this emerging field, there are still substantial challenges to overcome mainly relevant to the limited knowledge of the biological, chemical, and physical interactions that come into play in such complex systems. New technologies are needed enabling to investigate these complex interactions and to produce novel materials with superior biocompatibility characteristics. These efforts require application of interdisciplinary technologies.