Bioinspired Nanocomposites: Functional Materials for Sustainable Greener Technologies

This chapter presents a broad overview of the current advancements in bioplastics and bioinspired nanocomposites with nanoscale reinforcements that are being applied for a broad range of applications, that is, biomedical, electronics, durable goods and packaging materials. The production of nanocomposites by completely and/or partially renewable and biodegradable materials has helped in a range of different applications. Several drawbacks of conventional materials such as hydrophilicity, low-heat deflection, poor conductivity, and barrier properties can be efficiently overcome using biohybrid nanomaterials. Nano-reinforcements in composite materials deliver remarkably improved properties such as decrease in hydrophilicity and increase in mechanical properties as compared with neat biopolymer, which fails to exhibit these properties on its own. This approach can be used for other natural polymers to induce desired functionalities. This chapter covers the recent trends in nano-functional materials, renewable materials that are being applied for the production of nanobiocomposites and their applications especially in biomedical and healthcare sectors, which are discussed in detail. This emerging concept will definitely enhance the scope of nanohybrid materials for sustainable products development with improved properties than previously applied synthetic polymer-based or natural polymer-based materials.