Cellulose: A ubiquitous platform for ecofriendly metal nanoparticles preparation

Nanotechnology fascinate the whole scientific community due to its huge impact on humans, since the derived products, i.e. nanoparticles (NPs), have a ubiquitous presence in our quotidian life. With the unprecedented development of the nanotechnologies, new avenues are opened toward cutting edges domains of medicine as diagnosis and treatment of emerging diseases. The immense utilization of metallic NPs as key components of various nanotechnology techniques, in biomedical applications, have essentially enforced the scientists to look forward, searching for greener pathways of NPs syntheses, as simpler, safer, quick, and low-cost methods as compared with those existing today. Among the natural resources, cellulose represents a redoubtable candidate for such applications, fulfilling invaluable advantages: renewability, abundance, biocompatibility, biodegradability, being also suitable for processing using plenty of physical and/or chemical approaches. Therefore not surprisingly, plants derived products, i.e. cellulose, are preferred for green synthesis of a wide range of metallic (or their oxides) nanoparticles. This review provides recent information on the use of cellulosic resources as an effective matrix for the formation and stabilization of various metal nanoparticles (including metallic oxides), including: silver (AgNPs), gold (AuNPs), magnetic (MNPs), zinc oxide (ZnONPs), manganese dioxide (MnO(2)NPs), copper (CuNPs), titan oxide (TiO(2)NPs), nanoparticles, as well as, some of their most important applications. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.