Applications of Biodegradable and Bio-Based Polymers for Human Health and a Cleaner Environment

The world faces significant challenges as the population and consumption continue to grow while nonrenewable fossil fuels and other raw materials are depleted at ever-increasing rates. This informative volume provides a technical approach to address these issues using green design and analysis. It takes an interdisciplinary look at concepts that can be applied across engineering disciplines in the development of products, processes, and systems to minimize environmental impacts across all life cycle phases.

Topics include polymers for pollutant removal, wood-based biopolymers, bio-based polymers for drug formulations, biomaterial-based medical implants, biodegradabilty of biopolymer materials, bio-based polymers for food packaging applications, biodegradable polymers for tissue engineering applications, and more.

Iuliana Stoica, PhD, is a Scientific Researcher in physics at the Romanian Academy, "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Department of Polymer Materials Physics. Her area of scientific activity is focused on characterization of a wide range of polymers, copolymers, polymeric composites, and polymeric mixtures. She was a main or co-author for over 95 papers in peer-reviewed ISI journals, and she has contributed several book chapters on polymer and materials science. She was a member of the organizing and program committees of several scientific conferences.

Omari V. Mukbaniani, DSc, is Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry, and Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry, Tbilisi, Georgia. He is also Director of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and Polymeric Materials at TSU and a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Georgia. He is the author of more than 480 publications, 25 books, monographs, and 10 inventions. He created the International Symposium on Polymers and Advanced Materials ICSP&AM.

Neha Kanwar Rawat, PhD, is a recipient of a prestigious DST Young Scientist Postdoctoral Fellowship and is presently a researcher in the Materials Science Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India. Her main interests include nanotechnology-nanostructured materials synthesis and characterization, with her main focus on comprising green chemistry, novel sustainable chemical processing of nano-conducting polymers/nanocomposites, etc. She has contributed chapters to international books published with the Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley, Elsevier, etc.

A. K. Haghi, PhD, is the author and editor of over 200 books, as well as over 1000 published papers in various journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Haghi has received several grants, consulted for a number of major corporations, and is a frequent speaker to national and international audiences. Since 1983, he served as professor at several universities. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Chemoinformatics and Chemical Engineering and Polymers Research Journal. He is also a member of the Canadian Research and Development Center of Sciences and Cultures.