ABSTRACT
During the last years, stimuli-responsive materials, sensitive to different triggers, also called intelligent materials, represented a challenge for researchers, especially in designing targeted biomaterials for specific applications. Smart polymers received increased attention for developing a large variety of biomaterials of interest: controlled drug delivery systems, cancer diagnosis and therapy, tissue engineering scaffolds, sensors and actuators, bioseparation devices, etc. These polymers can undergo fast and reversible physical or chemical modifications as a response to external or internal stimuli action: temperature, light, magnetic or electric field, ultrasound, pH, redox processes or the presence of some biomolecules (glucose, enzymes). Many efforts were made to ensure specificity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and high efficacy of such intelligent biomaterials in order to improve their life quality.
The aim of this chapter is to briefly present the most recent and relevant investigations on natural and synthetic polymer systems that respond to different stimuli.
