ABSTRACT
Lignocellulosic polymers represent abundant and renewable resources in the world and have attracted great interest as novel organic feedstocks in nanocomposites. They belong to three main categories: cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignins. These components are interconnected through a variety of covalent and noncovalent interactions in plant cell walls (PCWs) and form a highly complex organized network. This organization plays a key role in plants for cell growth, mechanical properties, and biodegradation resistance. It thus provides inspiration to nanostructured composite designing. Relying on the long experience for extracting and preparing different types of polymers, the more recent development of nanoscale techniques provides new means to build and characterize bioinspired assemblies (thin lms and coatings). These are generally based on cellulose (cellulose nanocrystals, cellulose nanobers, cellulose derivatives), which offer a great technical and scientic potential for optical, biological, medical, packaging, and electronical applications. Moreover, they are well suited for fundamental researches aiming at understanding the physicochemical properties of the PCW polymers and their reactivity to biological agents.
