Fundamentals of Bionanomaterials

Book excerpt: Bionanomaterials are molecular materials composed partially or completely of biological molecules, key biological structures, such as proteins, enzymes, viruses, DNA, biopolymers as well as metal, metal oxides, and carbon nanomaterials with characteristic bioactivity. Bionanomaterials have drawn much attention for their use in a wide range of industrial applications from scaffolds, dental implants, drug delivery, dialysis, biobatteries, biofuel cells, air purification, and water treatment. Therefore, the intensive current research in this area is driven towards the designing and functionalization of bionanomaterials for industrial applications. Fundamentals of Bionanomaterials covers the fundamental aspects, experimental setup, synthesis, properties, and characterization of the different types of bionanomaterial. It discusses the different structure and unique properties of bionanomaterials that can be obtained by modifying their morphology and composition, highlighting a wide range of fabrication techniques of bionanomaterials and critical processing parameters. This is an important reference source for all those seeking to gain a solid understanding of the characterization, properties and processing a variety of bionanomaterial classes. - Explains the major properties and characterization techniques for a range of bionanomaterial classes - Discusses the commercialization of different types of bionanomaterials for a variety of industry sectors - Highlights the challenges and interdisciplinary perspective of bionanomaterials in science, biology, engineering, medicine, and technology, incorporating both fundamentals and applications