Recent Advances in smart piezoelectric biomaterials: Animal studies and beyond

In recent years, multifunctional piezo-biomaterials received remarkable attention as next-generation prosthetics due to their unique combination of excellent biocompatibility and electro-mechanical response. This review critically analyses the state-of-the-art in vivo performance of various piezo-biomaterials like Barium titanate (BT), Potassium-sodium niobate (KNN), Zinc oxide, Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), Magnesium silicate (MgS), Polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB), Lithium niobate, etc. in femur, tibia, hip, and knee, etc. of rats, dog, mice, rabbit, sheep, guinea pig, and porcine etc. Additionally, the performance of these piezoelectric biomaterials, demonstrated through devices and scaffolds, have been rigorously studied across a multitude of applications, explicitly aimed at the advancement towards human health care. These applications include biomechanical energy harvesting, transduction, actuation, sensing, tissue regeneration, sensorineural hearing impairment, intraocular sound pressure, speech recognition, cardiac pacemakers, and wound healing. The versatility of piezobiomaterials is concluded to be evident in cochlear, cardiac implants, bone grafts, and dental restoration, alongside various other bioelectronic devices like pacemakers, floating microphones, ultrasonic vibrators, and load-bearing endo-prosthetics. The review also emphasises on the challenges, faced in developing large-scale, efficient artificial piezoelectric biomaterials. It underscored the importance of addressing these complications to advance the understanding, required for creating innovative, piezoelectricity-based medical implants, tailorable to a wide range of biomedical applications.