Chapter 6 - Polymer-based bionanomaterials for biomedical applications

Abstract

Nature is endowed with several nanomaterials that can be obtained easily from animals and plants. Cellulose, chitin, polycaprolactone, and starch are abundant, naturally occurring, renewable, and biodegradable polymers. These bionanomaterials have unique multifunctional and self-assembling properties. The presence of unique natural polymers in vegetation, plants, and crops offers a biorenewable benefit for its preparations. Chitin and chitosan are the most preferred materials for biomedical applications because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity. These biopolymers can be easily produced in the form of gels, sponges, scaffolds, membranes, and beads. This chapter focuses on polymer-based bionanomaterials, their advantages, and applications in biomedicine, diagnostics, and analytics as well as nanoelectronics for tissue engineering, drug delivery wound dressings, and theranostic applications. Recent studies indicate that fluorescent polymeric nanovehicles can be used for neural stem cell modulation. These fluorescent nanoparticles based on dyes can act as attractive and better bioimaging tools. With the growing interest of the pharma and allied industries in nanotechnology-based platform technologies, the landscape of polymer bionanomaterials is attractive and poised for a tremendous increase in diverse and versatile applications.