Solution

Part 1 Multiple Choices (5 marks each)

1. Which one of the following is not the typical property for ceramics?
a. poor compressive strength
b. poor tensile strength
c. high hardness
d. low shear stress strength

2. Which one of the following does not belong to natural polymers?

a. collagen
b. polyethylene
c. polysaccharide hydrogels
d. fibrin

3. Point out one of the best outstanding advantages of solid lipid nanoparticles in the aspect
of drug delivery.
a. capable delivery for both water-soluble (e.g. proteins) and oil-soluble drugs
b. increasing the aqueous solubility of hydrophobic drugs
c. avoid burst release of drugs
d. mechanical properties are highly tunable

4. Which one of the following materials does not have bioactivity?

a. Mg foam
b. Ti
c. HA (hydroxyapatite)
d. Bioglass

5. The compositions of a bioactive glass include ____.

a. SiO2
b. CaO
c. Na2O
d. All the above

6. Which one of the following polymers has the lowest Tg temperature?

a. b. c. d.
Part 2 Short Answer Questions

7. Explain the terms bioinert, bioactive and biodegradable. [15 marks]

Bioinert: Minimal interaction with surrounding tissues; Not elicit bio-responses such as
inflammatory and immune responses

Bioactive: The ability of a material to stimulate healing and trick the tissue system into
responding as if it were a natural tissue.

Biodegradable: Breakdown of implant due to chemical or cellular actions

8. Describe the thermal formation process of glass ceramics. [15 marks]

First, the glass is heat treated to produce a large number of well dispersed nuclei: A nucleating
agent, such as titanium dioxide, is commonly added to induce the crystallization process.

Once the nuclei have been formed, raising the temperature to maximize the crystal growth
rate: Crystals grow from the large number of nuclei; the greater the number of nuclei present
originally, the finer the crystal structure will be in the resulting glass-ceramic.

Transformation is complete when all the small crystals, which have grown with a random
orientation, impinge on one another forming a fine-grained crystalline structure.

9. Explain how phase transformation operates to make shape memory alloys a beneficial
biomaterial. [20 marks]

Austenite, occurring at high temperatures, is the strong phase of shape memory alloys.

Martensite, is the relatively soft and easily deformed phase of shape memory alloys, which
exists at lower temperatures.

The as-formed Martensite phase, which is the same size and shape as the cubic Austenite
phase on a macroscopic scale, can be easily deformed under stress.

The shape memory effect is observed when the deformed alloy is reheated, leading to
recovery of the original shape.

A shape memory device can be easily introduced in a straight form via a sheath introducer at
cool but transform instantly into its predetermined shape at body temperature

10. List 4 advantages of using nanomaterials to deliver drugs. [20 marks]

Any four, 5 marks each
a. Targeted delivery by attaching a layer of small molecules which have affinity with tumor
cell receptors to the surfaces of nanomaterials loaded with drug molecules or biomarkers.
b. Controlled release by external stimuli such as light illumination
c. Improved drug delivery due to EPR effect
d. Improved drug stability: drugs can be encapsulated inside nanomaterials such as layered
double hydroxide nanoparticles or mesoporous silica nanoparticles.
e. Tracked drug delivery: drugs can be attached to semiconductor quantum dots or other
types of fluorescent nanoparticles or magnetic nanoparticles to allow the drug delivery to be
capable of being tracked by fluorescent/magnetic resonance imaging.
f. Nanomaterials reduce renal excretion and/or hepatic degradation, leading to prolonged
circulation times
g. Nanomaterials can carry different payloads, such as drugs, genes, DNA, which allows
combined therapeutic or theranostic (therapeutic + diagnostic) for simultaneous detection
and treatment of diseases