A self-powered and thermally-responsive drug delivery system based on conducting polymers

A simple self-powered drug delivery system was developed based on the galvanic cell mechanism, involving the direct deposition of a drug-contained polypyrrole (PPy) film on the one side of a titanium foil. After covering the other side with a eicosane-poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) blend film, it is interesting to observe that massive drug release only occurred when the release medium was heated to the body temperature. The methyltetrazolium (MTT) assay indicated that the system had good biocompatibility. Since titanium is one of the most commonly used load-bearing implant materials, it is expected that the present drug delivery system can find applications in titanium-related orthopaedic fields.