polymers Review Fluorinated Polymers as Smart Materials for Advanced Biomedical Applications Vanessa F. Cardoso 1,2,* ID , Daniela M. Correia 3,4, Clarisse Ribeiro 1,5 ID , Margarida M. Fernandes 1,5 and Senentxu Lanceros-Méndez 4,6 1 Centro/Departamento de Física, Universidade do Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; cribeiro@fisica.uminho.pt (C.R.); margaridafernandes@fisica.uminho.pt (M.M.F.) 2 CMEMS-UMinho, Universidade do Minho, DEI, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal 3 Departamento de Química e CQ-VR, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal;
[email protected] 4 BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, UPV/EHU Science Park, 48940 Leioa, Spain;
[email protected] 5 CEB—Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal 6 IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +351-253-60-40-73 Received: 11 January 2018; Accepted: 6 February 2018; Published: 8 February 2018 Abstract: Fluorinated polymers constitute a unique class of materials that exhibit a combination of suitable properties for a wide range of applications, which mainly arise from their outstanding chemical resistance, thermal stability, low friction coefficients and electrical properties. Furthermore, those presenting stimuli-responsive properties have found widespread industrial and commercial applications, based on their ability to change in a controlled fashion one or more of their physicochemical properties, in response to single or multiple external stimuli such as light, temperature, electrical and magnetic fields, pH and/or biological signals. In particular, some fluorinated polymers have been intensively investigated and applied due to their piezoelectric, pyroelectric and ferroelectric properties in biomedical applications including controlled drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, microfluidic and artificial muscle actuators, among others.