Chapter 2 - Nature bioinspired and engineered nanomaterials

Abstract

Over the last few decades of research, the development of bionanotechnology was fueled by the need for a new type of nanomaterials with properties that are unmatchable with their counterpart synthetic nanoparticles. These characteristics include biodegradability, biocompatibility, and uneven shapes and formulations, with the ability to express current and novel properties that make biomaterials as the perfect nanoparticles for chemical and biological conjugations. Newly developed nanomaterials showed promising characteristics in medical, pharmaceutical, environmental, and energy applications. This chapter highlights different types of nature-inspired biosynthesized nanomaterials and their green synthesis methods, as well as some of their emerging applications, especially in the fields of nanomedicine, cosmetics, drug delivery, molecular imaging, and catalytic precursors. The chapter also covers different types of bionanomaterials (e.g., viruses, protein cages, and phages) and highlights their unique properties and potential applications.