Montmorillonite-Chitosan based Nano-Composites and Applications

Abstract

Chitosan is a biopolymer gaining widespread attention due to its astounding physicochemical characteristics and properties, including biocompatibility, mucoadhesive, biodegradability, low toxicity, and polycationic nature. Furthermore, chitosan can be processed to obtain different nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nano-vehicles, nanocapsules, scaffolds, etc. Montmorillonite (MMT) is a major constituent of bentonite clay, which has the ability to ameliorate the mechanical strength of polymers including chitosan when combined with it due to its layered structure. Bionanocomposite is a term used to describe composite materials which encompass component(s) with natural inception and the obtained particles with at the minimum one size ranging from 1 nm to 100 nm. Chitosan-based nanocomposite with MMT showed a proven record of wide applications in drug delivery, medical, biomedical, and pharmaceutical fields. This chapter provides an insight into the various characteristics and properties of chitosan and MMT, different methods to develop their composite, and various forms of the resulted composite along a thorough description of applications.