Nature is gifted with several nanomaterials which could be easily prepared from animals and plants. Cellulose, chitin and starch are abundant, natural, renewable and biodegradable polymers. By intelligent processing techniques they could be used as classical nano reinforcing elements in polymers. They are often called whiskers. These whiskers are almost defect free and as a result, their properties are comparable to perfect crystals. In most cases, aqueous suspensions of these nano crystallites are prepared by acid hydrolysis process. The object of this treatment is to dissolve away regions of low lateral order so that the water-insoluble, highly crystalline residue may be converted into a stable suspension by subsequent vigorous mechanical shearing action. The reinforcing ability of these natural whiskers stem from their chemical nature and hierarchical structure. During the past decade, many studies have been devoted to mimic biocomposites by blending natural whiskers from waste and biomass sources with various polymer matrices. In this review article, the recent advances on the preparation and characterization of nanowhiskers from waste and biomass and their polymer nanocomposites have been reported. Finally the emerging applications are also discussed.
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