Fundamentals of bionanocomposites

Bionanocomposites are unique category of materials, designed from natural biodegradable polymers and organic/inorganic fillers existing at the nanometer scale. These materials can be used as promising hybrid materials for numerous biomedical applications that include drug delivery, biosensors, and tissue engineering where they are intended to function up to a predetermined time period and designed to disappear from the body after use. The major cause of versatile nature of these materials is due to availability of a large variety of biopolymers and fillers and ease of their processing. They form a fascinating interdisciplinary area that brings together biology, materials science, and nanotechnology and provide plausible solutions to various diseases and physiological disorders. This chapter discusses advancing current efforts and key research challenges in the development of these materials for use in potential biomedical applications. This chapter also discusses dynamics of in vitro degradation of biopolymers and highlights some specific areas where bionanocomposites find vital use and their regulated biodegradation helps in augmenting their efficiency and performance. This chapter will also explore the new avenues of bionanointerfaces where bionanocomposites may be exploited to address certain unanswered issues that are pertaining to complex diseases such as cancers, tumors, and other cellular disorders.