Future perspectives of bionanocomposites

Abstract The nanocomposite is an interdisciplinary area encompassing physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and engineering. During the last few years, bionanocomposite has emerged into a typical term to assign to those nanocomposites including a naturally occurring polymer (biopolymer) mixed with an inorganic moiety, and appearing no less than one measurement on the nanometer scale (1 nm = 10−  9). They are the materials of 21st century in view of possessing design uniqueness and property combinations that are not found in conventional composites. Bionanocomposites have an annual growth rate of about 25% and have the fastest demand to be in engineering plastics and elastomers. The potential of bionanocomposites is so striking that they are useful in several areas ranging from packaging to biomedical applications. Natural bionanocomposites combine a high resilience and tolerance toward failure, adaptation, modularity, and multifunctionality. Natural polymers, which are preferred from an environmental standpoint, including starch, polylactic acid (PLA), cellulose acetate, etc. have been widely used in the past few years. Some applications of bionanocomposites are that they act as catalysts, gas-separation membranes, contact lenses, and bioactive implant materials. Bionanocomposites are also used in the fabrication of scaffolds, implants, diagnostics and biomedical devices, and in drug-delivery systems. They can be used in gene delivery for the purpose of anticancer therapy and have application in cosmetics as well.