Chapter 11

Bionanocomposites

Eliton S. Medeiros

Eliton S. Medeiros

Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais (DEMAT), Cidade Universitária, 58.051-900, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil

Search for more papers by this author
Amélia S.F. Santos

Amélia S.F. Santos

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais (DEMAT), Avenida Salgado Filho, 3000–Lagoa Nova, 59078-970, Natal, RN, Brazil

Search for more papers by this author
Alain Dufresne

Alain Dufresne

Grenoble INP-Pagora, Laboratoire Génie des Procédés Papetiers (LGP2), 461 rue de la Papeterie, CS 10065, 38402, Saint-Martin d'Hères Cedex, France

Search for more papers by this author
William J. Orts

William J. Orts

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Western Regional Research Center (WRRC), Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering (BCE), 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA

Search for more papers by this author
Luiz H.C. Mattoso

Luiz H.C. Mattoso

Laboratório Nacional de Nanotecnologia para o Agronegócio (LNNA), Embrapa Instrumentação Agropecuária (CNPDIA), Rua XV de Novembro, 1452, Centro, 13.560-970, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 18 October 2013
Citations: 6

Summary

Commonly used polymeric materials, many of which are derived from petroleum, pose problems after their intended life-span. The fast-paced consumption of petroleum (roughly 100 000 times faster than nature can replenish) and the general disposal possibilities, incineration and land filling contribute to the unsustainability of the current situation [1] and imply future problems in supplying advanced materials. This fact has created the urgent need for replacing petroleum-based polymers by renewable and biodegradable ones. As a result, there has been a growing effort to develop new biodegradable materials from environment-friendly, biodegradable, and renewable resources whose feasibility in suiting their properties to a particular application can result in easily tailored materials such as bionanocomposites.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.