About This Special Issue
With the development of polymer compounds, there is a strong need for replacing fossil-based products with biodegradable and/or bio-based ones, which can resolve numerous issues, such as reduction of oil stocks and their geographical localization, plastic pollution, carbon footprint and sustainability. Exploration and efficient utilization of eco-friendly materials is the key to have a sustainable future. Natural biopolymer is the most abundant natural resource, which exhibits some good properties (eg. film-forming, biodegradable and biocompatible), and it has been widely applied in the food, pharmaceutical and agriculture industries as an abundant and environmentally friendly material with low cost. However, how to achieve multi-functionalization and more efficient utilization of biopolymer is still a major challenge. Exploration and efficient utilization of eco-friendly materials is the key to have a sustainable future. Polysaccharides and gelatin are the most abundant natural polymers with low cost, good properties (e.g., film-forming, biodegradable and biocompatible), which can be used to propose rational solutions. Today there are still unsolved scientific questions regarding the use of functional biopolymers (starch, cellulose) in industrial applications. For example, how can we achieve a controlled and amplified functionalization of soluble starch or cellulose? How the local density and distribution of the functionality will affect the materials properties and thus their applications?
Potential topics include but are not limited to:
- Studies based on the high-value utilization of biomass materials
- Advancement in biopolymers technology and effectively use to manufacture multi-functional materials
- Areas such as biomedical materials, biomass absorbent, scaffold and biodegradable film
- New renewable biopolymers regarding to resource utilization of biomass materials
Aims and Scope:
- BiopolymerS
- Biomass materials
- Polysaccharides
- Modification
- Multi-functionalization
- Resource utilization