Dissolvable medical device polymer being developed

A professor at the Iowa State University is developing materials that could one day harmlessly melt away a medical device inside a person’s body when it’s finished with.

According to Reza Montazami, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, these transient materials or “transient electronics” are special polymers designed to quickly and completely melt away when a trigger is activated. It’s a fairly new field of study and Montazami says he’s making progress.

The technology could also be used for applications such as military devices to collect and send data and then dissolve or an environmental sensor could collect climate information, then wash away in the rain.

It’s a new way of looking at electronics: “You don’t expect your cell phone to dissolve someday, right?” said Montazami. “The resistors, capacitors and electronics, you don’t expect everything to dissolve in such a manner that there’s no trace of it.”

The research team Montazami is leading is developing degradable polymer composite materials that are suitable platforms for electronic components. The team has also built and tested a degradable antenna capable of data transmission.

The team presented some of its research results at the recent meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas.

And, a paper describing some of the team’s work, “Study of Physically Transient Insulating Materials as a Potential Platform for Transient Electronics and Bioelectronics,” has just been published online by the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The paper focuses on the precise control of the degradation rate of polymer composite materials developed for transient electronics.

The research has been supported by Montazami’s startup funds from Iowa State. He is pursuing grants to support additional projects.

“Investigation of electronic devices based on transient materials (transient electronics) is a new and rarely addressed technology with paramount potentials in both medical and military applications,” researchers wrote in the paper.

To demonstrate that potential, Montazami played a video showing a blue light-emitting diode mounted on a clear polymer composite base with the electrical leads embedded inside. Add a drop of water and the base and wiring begin to melt away. Before long the light goes out and a second drop of water degrades what little is left.

The researchers have developed and tested transient resistors and capacitors. They’re working on transient LED and transistor technology, said Montazami, who started the research as a way to connect his background in solid-state physics and materials science with applied work in mechanical engineering.

As the technology develops, Montazami sees more and more potential for the commercial application of transient materials.

Just think, he said, if you lose your credit card, you could send out a signal that causes the card to self-destruct.