ZnO/Cellulose nanocomposite: Recent Developments and Future Prospects

Abstract

Biocomposites are the amalgamation of two or more biodegradable, eco-friendly materials with different chemical and physical properties. Cellulose-based biocomposites are highly in demand because of their good antibacterial activities as well as their high mechanical strength, thermal stability and flexibility properties. In this review paper, ZnO/cellulose biocomposites have been chosen to discuss in detail. ZnO is an n-type, nontoxic, low cost semiconductor with a band gap of 3.4 eV; hence, more preferable over other semiconductor materials for preparing semiconductor-cellulose biocomposites. In recent time, ZnO-cellulose biocomposites have attracted great research attention for optical (UV sensing, shielding, etc.), bioelectronics (antibacterial, drug uses, etc.), mechanical (toughness, etc.), electric (di-electric, etc.), and thermal applications. In the majority of literature, ZnO/cellulose biocomposites are either used in UV-related applications, like in cosmetic products to act as a protector or in antimicrobial activities like food packaging, fungus treatment, etc. In this paper, we have extensively included the literature reported till date on the preparation and characterization of ZnO-cellulose biocomposites. The preferable applications of the as-prepared biocomposites are also discussed in detail to find out the future scope of these biocomposites for practical applications.