Biomass-Derived Renewable Carbonaceous Materials for Sustainable Chemical and Environmental Applications

Abstract

Our Biosphere comprises abundant biopolymers such as cellulose, chitin, and chitosan possessing highly desirable traits with biodegradability and renewability being prominent ones. The presence of amino groups in chitin/chitosan confer these basic polysaccharides numerous advantages to help generate chemical entities with unique and sought-after functional properties, besides nitrogen-enriched carbonaceous materials. This Perspective article emphasizes some of the appealing prospects these biopolymers provide because of the recent technological developments in nanotechnology field ranging from traditional catalysis to emerging high-value products. A few examples are presented for sustainable chemical transformations and environmental remediation exploiting the abundant biomass, agricultural residues, and seafood waste. Traditional biomass-derived platform chemicals are also introduced as the potential source of renewable feedstocks from these carbon-based materials, which offer many options for production of sustainable products thus circumventing the traditional use of fossil fuel-derived chemicals.