An overview of biopolymer-based nanocomposites for optics and electronics

Abstract

Biopolymer-based nanocomposites are materials composed mainly of biopolymer matrices in which nanofillers are dispersed. Biopolymers are polymers obtained from some living organisms; therefore they are biodegradable and biocompatible; moreover, they have a variety of functional groups allowing the control of the interface with nanofillers and the multiscale assembly. They have been employed in numerous applications also because of their flexibility under processing conditions and competitive cost of their end products. Most of the published work is focused on their electronic and biomedical applications. In this review we focus our attention on biopolymer-based composites with inorganic nanofillers like metal, metal oxides, semiconductor nanoparticles and carbon-based nanoparticles, for application in optics and electronics. Special attention is paid to synthesis strategies for integrating nanofillers in biopolymer matrices.