Biopolymers for biomimetic processing of metal oxides

Abstract

The integration of a biopolymer and a metal oxide forming composites can be performed by a polymer-assisted mineralization, also called biomimetic approach. The biopolymer/metal oxide can be further transformed by thermal treatment into metal oxides/carbon composites and the pure metal oxide. The processes depend on the solubility and gelling properties of the biopolymers: sol-gel, solvothermal, reactive mineralization, and auto-combustion methods are considered here. Alginate, chitosan, starch, and cellulose are the most widely used beside other polysaccharides. Simple metal oxides can be targeted (SiO2, TiO2, ZnO, ZrO2, etc….) and also mixed metal oxides (ferrites or perovskites). This overview emphasizes the important parameters of the synthesis, the impact of the biopolymers on characteristic of the metal oxide, and in improving the performances in applications (e.g., luminescent materials, catalysts, absorbent materials, magnetic composites, anode, photocatalyst materials, and others).