Smart Thermoresponsive Biomaterials

Thermoresponsive materials represent an important class of advanced materials that have evolved over the past few decades. These materials are also designated as "smart" materials as they are capable of responding dramatically to small temperature changes. In this chapter we will present a select range of polymers that exhibit thermoresponsive behavior, with a particular focus on polyacrylamide-based polymers. We also review the criteria that influence their thermoresponsive character. Inherently, many materials are not thermoresponsive, thus approaches for surface modification of such materials resulting in unique thinly-coated thermoresponsive surface layers or films are also shown. Finally, select biological applications of thermoresponsive biomaterials are presented, in particular for cell culture and chromatography applications.