Polysaccharide Building Blocks

This book is an archival reference for the evolving field of biomaterials and their applications in society, focusing on their composition, properties, characterization, chemistry and applications in bioenergy, chemicals, and novel materials and biomaterials.  It has broad appeal due to the recent heightened awareness around bioenergy and biomass as potential replacements for petroleum feedstocks.  The book is divided into three parts: cellulose-based biomaterials, chitin and chitosan biomaterials, and hemicelluloses and other polysaccharides.  Each chapter addresses a separate biomaterial, discussing its chemical, physical, and biological attributes, and hones in on each compound's intrinsic tunability for numerous chemical transformations.  In the current quest for a "green" economy and resources, this book will help inspire scientists towards novel sources for chemicals, materials, and energy in the years to come.

Foreword vii Preface ix Contributors xi 1 Recent Advances in Cellulose Chemistry 1 Thomas Heinze and Katrin Petzold-Welcke 2 Cellulosic Aerogels 51 Falk Liebner, Emmerich Haimer, Antje Potthast, and Thomas Rosenau 3 Nanocelluloses: Emerging Building Blocks for Renewable Materials 105 Youssef Habibi and Lucian A. Lucia 4 Interactions of Chitosan with Metals for Water Purification 127 Mohammed Rhazi, Abdelouhad Tolaimate, and Youssef Habibi 5 Recent Developments in Chitin and Chitosan Bio-Based Materials Used for Food Preservation 143 Véronique Coma 6 Chitin and Chitosan as Biomaterial Building Blocks 177 JoséF. Louvier-Hernández and Ram B. Gupta 7 Chitosan Derivatives for Bioadhesive/Hemostatic Applications: Chemical and Biological Aspects 199 Mai Yamazaki and Samuel M. Hudson 8 Chitin Nanofibers as Building Blocks for Advanced Materials 227 Youssef Habibi and Lucian A. Lucia 9 Electrical Conductivity and Polysaccharides 247 Axel Rußler and Thomas Rosenau 10 Polysaccharide-Based Porous Materials 271 Peter S. Shuttleworth, Avtar Matharu, and James H. Clark 11 Starch-Based Bionanocomposites: Processing and Properties 287 Visakh P. M., Aji P. Mathew, Kristiina Oksman, and Sabu Thomas 12 Starch-Based Sustainable Materials 307 Luc Avérous 13 The Potential of Xylans as Biomaterial Resources 331 Anna Ebringerova 14 Micro- and Nanoparticles from Hemicelluloses 367 Emmerich Haimer, Falk Liebner, Antje Potthast, and Thomas Rosenau 15 Nonxylan Hemicelluloses as a Source of Renewable Materials 387 David Plackett and Natanya Hansen Index 409