Functional Piezoelectric Nano Composite Fibers for Smart Drug Delivery

The development of controlled drug delivery systems has been extensively investigated to improve the therapeutic efficacy of conventional drug products.

The control over biodistribution and pharmacokinetics is critical to enhance the efficacy and minimizing the side effects of therapeutic agents.

An on-demand drug delivery system for precise control over the release time and the quantity of drugs is needed which has not been studied comprehensively and remains to be explored.

Piezoelectric materials provide a superior platform for the electrically controlled drug delivery system due to their ability in converting mechanical forces to electric potentials through the direct piezoelectric effect. The importance of this project is the contribution of the piezoelectric effect on drug loading and release.

This project proposes the mechanoresponsiveness of piezoelectric electrospun nanocomposite fibers for drug delivery applications.

The novelty of the project is adding two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric nanofillers to the composite to enhance piezoelectric efficiency which leads eliminating additional post-treatment processes (poling) reducing fabrication complexity and cost.

The large surface area inherent to nanomaterials, fiber’s porosity, together with the transformative piezoelectric properties, allow electrospun fiber to be a drug delivery platform driven by the piezoelectric effect. The drug release quantity will be tuned by a mechanical stimulus in in-vitro conditions.

This project will demonstrate the utility of piezoelectric nanocomposite electrospun fiber for mechano-responsive controlled drug release and its potential for in-vivo applications in a facile manner in the future.Ten years of experience and knowledge in functional fibers that come to this project by the applicant will strengthen the KU Leuven lead in smart fibers based on piezoelectric materials for a wide range of applications not only in biomedical applications but also in wearable technology.