Hybrid nanocomposites through colloidal interactions between crystalline polysaccharide nanoparticles and oxide precursors

International audienceThis chapter is devoted to the presentation of hybrid nanocomposite materials obtained through the interaction of colloidal crystalline polysaccharides and precursors of oxide phases. It also includes a preliminary introduction to the chemistry and physical chemistry of the polysaccharide nanocrystals, mainly cellulose and chitin. The main approaches and processes employed for the synthesis of the nanocomposites are described for different oxide families: silica, transition metals and metal oxides, phosphate and carbonate phases, and graphene oxide. Additionally, the properties of the materials are mentioned, and described in more details when they result from a combination of polysaccharide and oxide phases (typically for mechanical and optical properties). Globally, this chapter aims at giving a comprehensive review of the innovating research undertaken in the field and providing starting knowledge for nonspecialist readers

Fundamentals and Applications of Chitosan

International audienceChitosan is a biopolymer obtained from chitin, one of the most abundant and renewable material on Earth. Chitin is a primary component of cell walls in fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods, such as crustaceans, e.g. crabs, lobsters and shrimps, and insects, the radulae of molluscs, cephalopod beaks, and the scales of fish and lissamphibians. The discovery of chitin in 1811 is attributed to Henri Braconnot while the history of chitosan dates back to 1859 with the work of Charles Rouget. The name of chitosan was, however, introduced in 1894 by Felix Hoppe-Seyler. Because of its particular macromolecular structure, biocompatibility, biode-gradability and other intrinsic functional properties, chitosan has attracted major scientific and industrial interests from the late 1970s. Chitosan and its derivatives have practical applications in food industry, agriculture, pharmacy, medicine, cos-metology, textile and paper industries, and chemistry. In the last two decades, chito-san has also received much attention in numerous other fields such as dentistry, ophthalmology, biomedicine and bio-imaging, hygiene and personal care, veterinary medicine, packaging industry, agrochemistry, aquaculture, functional textiles and cosmetotextiles, catalysis, chromatography, beverage industry, photography, wastewater treatment and sludge dewatering, and biotechnology. Nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals are actually growing markets, and therapeutic and biomedical products should be the next markets in the development of chitosan. Chitosan is also the N. Morin-Crini (*) · Laboratoire Chrono-environnement, UMR 6249, UFR Sciences et Techniques