Molecular Characterization of Biopolymers and Biobased Bioplastics
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2021) | Viewed by 5539
Special Issue Editor
Interests: environmental organic geochemistry, including organic matter and soil health; organic contaminants in nature; refractory C forms in nature; molecular characterization of soil organic matter and its agronomic and environmental implications; biogeochemical markers in soils and sediments; the use of advanced techniques for organic matter and biopolymer characterization (GC/MS, Py-GC/MS, FT-IR, ED-XRF, IRMS, CSIA, 13C-MAS-NMR; high resolution MS, GC/Q-TOF)
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Biopolymers synthesized by living organisms are amazing materials, enormously abundant in nature with diverse properties and biological functions. Today, biobased bioplastics, which encompass a whole family of materials usually based in biopolymers, are considered the natural evolution of conventional petroleum-based plastics and envisaged as a solution and an environmentally acceptable alternative for the many uses of these synthetic materials. Apart from saving fossil resources by using renewable materials (biomass), bioplastics are usually biodegradable, offering means of recovery at the end of the product’s life. This may help to solve some of the most urgent problems caused by the overuse of conventional synthetic petroleum-based polymers such as water and soil pollution, the deleterious influence to human and animal health, and the varied problems derived from the increasing ammount of microplastics in the environment.
An accurate molecular characterization of biopolymers and bio-based bioplastics is important, among many other reasons to infer and discover functionalities and properties, to trace organic matter in soils and sediments, for the design of new uses and applications, for quality control and forensic purpose and to foresee its fate in the environment and the design of appropriate recovery strategies. This Special Issue on “Molecular Characterization of Biopolymers and Bio-Based Bioplastics” intends to compile the latest analytical developments applied towards a better structural knowledge of these valuable materials, from natural polymers in biomass (biopolyesters, celluloses, lignins, suberins and cutins, chitins, proteins, polypeptides and polynucleotides) to the new polymers derived from renewable biomass sources (starch, cellulose, protein, lipid derived polymers, aliphatic polyesters, etc.). Manuscripts including multidisciplinary approaches and the use of complementary techniques for the molecular characterization and traceability of biopolymers in the environment (biomarkers) will be particularly welcome.
Dr. José A. González-Pérez
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Biomass
- Biopolymers
- Bioplastics
- Structural characterization
- Chromatography
- Spectroscopy
- Spectrometry
- Stable isotopes
- Pyrolysis
- Recycling
- Biomarker
