Bionanocomposites based on pectins and halloysite nanotubes

Abstract

During the past century, there has been a lot production of plastic materials which contributed significantly to improve the quality of human life due to their remarkable versatility in various applications. These materials are practically un-degradable generating serious environmental risks. One of the urgent problem arises from the products widely employed in packaging. Therefore, some efforts have been addressed at reducing the packaging waste by exploiting a new class of bio-degradable materials. It is worth-noting that such bio materials can also offer economic advantages because they are derived from renewable resources.1,2 Apart from the packaging area, the potential applications of bio-materials are numerous and involve different fields such fibers for the textile industry, medical products, engineering applications, and so on. A recent review2 reported that several biopolymeric materials (collagen, gelatin, chitosan, chitin, cellulose, starch, pectin, etc.)