Review of Bionanocomposite Coating Films and Their Applications

Abstract

The properties of a composite material depend on its constituent materials such as natural biopolymers or synthetic biodegradable polymers and inorganic or organic nanomaterials or nano-scale minerals. The significance of bio-based and synthetic polymers and their drawbacks on coating film application is currently being discussed in research papers and articles. Properties and applications vary for each novel synthetic bio-based material, and a number of such materials have been fabricated in recent years. This review provides an in-depth discussion on the properties and applications of biopolymer-based nanocomposite coating films. Recent works and articles are cited in this paper. These citations are ubiquitous in the development of novel bionanocomposites and their applications.

Keywords: biodegradable polymers; bionanocomposite; coating film; crosslink; nanomaterials.

Figure 1

Graphical illustration of the hierarchical structure of cellulose extracted from plants.

Figure 2

(a) Photograph of a 200 mm diameter cellulose nanopaper structure on top of conventional A4 copy paper; (b) Scanning electron micrograph of hybrid microfibrillated cellulose nanofibers/montmorillonite nanopaper surface. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [16], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.

Figure 3

(a) The chemical structure of the monomer units found in lignin; (b) AFM image of cellulose nanocrystals after acid hydrolysis and (c) the average length of the monomer unit found in lignin. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [31], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.

Figure 4

Visual appearance of the phase transition of (a) lignin-g-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymer and (b) lignin-g-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymer fully substituted macroinitiator. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [32], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.

Figure 5

Molecular structure of pullulan with maltotriose and maltotetraose subunit.

Figure 6

A common chemical structure of polyhydroxyalkanoate monomer, where p = 1 to 3; yet p = 1 is the most common monomer, 3-hydroxybutyrate; q can range from 100 to several thousand [61]. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [61], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.

Figure 7

Schematic illustration of the build-up of electrostatically adsorbed multilayered films. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [117], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.

Figure 8

Illustration of the structural arrangement of CNC/lignin nanocomposite coatings and UV-transmittance. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from [31], copyright (2016) American Chemical Society.