Bionanocomposites: A New Concept of Ecological, Bioinspired, and Functional Hybrid Materials

Abstract Bionanocomposites represent an emerging group of nanostructured hybrid materials. They are formed by the combination of natural polymers and inorganic solids and show at least one dimension on the nanometer scale. Similar to conventional nanocomposites, which involve synthetic polymers, these biohybrid materials also exhibit improved structural and functional properties of great interest for different applications. The properties inherent to the biopolymers, that is, biocompatibility and biodegradability, open new prospects for these hybrid materials with special incidence in regenerative medicine and in environmentally friendly materials (green nanocomposites). Research on bionanocomposites can be…