Nanocellulose as analyte and analytical tool: Opportunities and challenges

In the run-up to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (N&N), researchers have investigated and applied a wide variety of nanomaterials (e.g. from carbon nanotubes to graphene) with spectacular properties that overwhelmed the conventional materials. Far from most of nanoparticles (NPs) studied since the last decade like graphene, nanocellulose (NC) has been recently considered as one of the renewable materials that will revolutionize the future, as virtue of its powerful properties, biocompatibility, low toxicity and low production costs from natural resources. The main purpose of this paper is to compile the recent achievements of NC in analytical chemistry and other areas such as medicine. NC can play different roles in analytical processes. On the one hand, a first approximation consists of the consideration of NC as target analyte in real samples where it is added to improve some properties. On the other hand, a variety of methods in which NC acted as an efficient tool to improve the analytical processes is summarized, taking into account their use as sorbent, as separation media or as sensor. Within this thematic, some examples of great relevance related to sorbents and sensing platforms based on NC for the determination of other nanoobjects are thoroughly outlined, which belong to the new trending topic known as the Third way of Analytical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (AN&N). Along this overview, emerging advances based on NC are further outlined for opening new research lines for such atypical eco-friendly functional nanoparticle. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.