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Natural Polymer Materials
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Natural Polymer Materials

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 10437

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xiao Hu

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science and Mathematics, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA
Interests: polymer; biomaterials; biomacromolecules; regenerative medicine; drug delivery; nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. David Salas-de la Cruz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08102, USA
Interests: biomaterials; biobatteries; natural biomacromolecules; morphology; X-ray scattering; scaffolds

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural polymers include numerous materials that are mainly produced by plants and animals, such as structural proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids. Protein materials commonly used in composites include silk, keratin, soy, collagen, gelatin, resilin, corn zein, and wheat gluten. Polysaccharides are constructed from monomeric sugars that are linked together by glycosidic linkages and can store materials, compose structural components, and act as protective materials. Typical polysaccharides include starch, cellulose, pectin, alginates, chitin, chitosan, and hyaluronic acid found in plants, algae or animals. Nucleic acids are long linear or circular macromolecules composed of linked nucleotides, DNA or various types of RNA. They are a rapidly expanding class of materials and have been of interest in recent decades due to their abundance, low cost, biocompatibility, and tunable morphological and physicochemical properties. Natural supramolecular structures from these renewable sources have shown broad applicatons in the development of membranes, foams, fibers, particles, gels and composites for nanotechnology, bioelectronics, oil and gas separation, removal of radionuclides, sensing, for the fabrication of scaffolds for cartilage, muscle, neural and bone regeneration, and for the creation of nanostructures for drug delivery.

The aim of this Special Issue is to discuss their design, synthesis, manufacturing, characterization or modeling, and their unique physical, chemical, and biomedical applications. We cordially invite you to contribute to this themed issue. Both original research and review articles are highly welcome.

Dr. Xiao Hu
Prof. Dr. David Salas-De La Cruz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biopolymer, biomacromolecules and functional materials
  • Natrual polymer design and characterization
  • Film, foam, fiber, particle, gel, composite, sensor and device
  • Physical, chemical and biological properties

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 13755 KiB  
Article
A Novel Method for Stabilizing Zein Gel Particles to Salt Ion-Induced Aggregation
by Yiquan Zhang, Jiaqiang Huang, Fazheng Ren, Yi Li, Yi Tong, Pengcheng Wen and Pengjie Wang
Molecules 2021, 26(5), 1458; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26051458 - 08 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2092
Abstract
The destabilization of zein gel particles by salt ions seriously limits their practical application. In this study, zein gel particles exhibiting excellent stability to salt ions were developed by grafting gum arabic with tannic acid. Gum arabic (GA) was first coated onto the [...] Read more.
The destabilization of zein gel particles by salt ions seriously limits their practical application. In this study, zein gel particles exhibiting excellent stability to salt ions were developed by grafting gum arabic with tannic acid. Gum arabic (GA) was first coated onto the surface of zein gel particles, followed by addition of tannic acid to further reinforce non-covalent cross-linking between GA and the zein gel particle surface. The stability of the gel particle dispersions was characterized by Turbiscan analysis, gel particle diameter changes and visual inspection of phase separation. The tannic acid-treated zein–GA gel particles were highly protected from precipitation or aggregation in the presence of NaCl (0–3 mol/L) at different pH values (4.0, 7.0 or 8.5). The gel particles prepared in this study will therefore have broader applicability in different pH and salt ions ion environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Polymer Materials)
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Review

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33 pages, 9217 KiB  
Review
Protein and Polysaccharide-Based Fiber Materials Generated from Ionic Liquids: A Review
by Christopher R. Gough, Ashley Rivera-Galletti, Darrel A. Cowan, David Salas-de la Cruz and Xiao Hu
Molecules 2020, 25(15), 3362; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules25153362 - 24 Jul 2020
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 7685
Abstract
Natural biomacromolecules such as structural proteins and polysaccharides are composed of the basic building blocks of life: amino acids and carbohydrates. Understanding their molecular structure, self-assembly and interaction in solvents such as ionic liquids (ILs) is critical for unleashing a flora of new [...] Read more.
Natural biomacromolecules such as structural proteins and polysaccharides are composed of the basic building blocks of life: amino acids and carbohydrates. Understanding their molecular structure, self-assembly and interaction in solvents such as ionic liquids (ILs) is critical for unleashing a flora of new materials, revolutionizing the way we fabricate multi-structural and multi-functional systems with tunable physicochemical properties. Ionic liquids are superior to organic solvents because they do not produce unwanted by-products and are considered green substitutes because of their reusability. In addition, they will significantly improve the miscibility of biopolymers with other materials while maintaining the mechanical properties of the biopolymer in the final product. Understanding and controlling the physicochemical properties of biopolymers in ionic liquids matrices will be crucial for progress leading to the ability to fabricate robust multi-level structural 1D fiber materials. It will also help to predict the relationship between fiber conformation and protein secondary structures or carbohydrate crystallinity, thus creating potential applications for cell growth signaling, ionic conductivity, liquid diffusion and thermal conductivity, and several applications in biomedicine and environmental science. This will also enable the regeneration of biopolymer composite fiber materials with useful functionalities and customizable options critical for additive manufacturing. The specific capabilities of these fiber materials have been shown to vary based on their fabrication methods including electrospinning and post-treatments. This review serves to provide basic knowledge of these commonly utilized protein and polysaccharide biopolymers and their fiber fabrication methods from various ionic liquids, as well as the effect of post-treatments on these fiber materials and their applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical research, wound healing, environmental filters and sustainable and green chemistry research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Polymer Materials)
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