Polysaccharide nanocrystals can be derived from the renewable resources cellulose, chitin or starch, which makes them ideal candidates for 'Green Materials Science'. This versatile material class can be used in nanocomposites such as rubber or polyester, and in functional materials such as drug carriers, bio-inspired mechanically adaptive materials or membranes. Moreover, polysaccharide-based nanomaterials are environmentally friendly due to their intrinsic biodegradability.
With its interdisciplinary approach the book gives a thorough introduction to extraction, structure, properties, surface modification, theory, and mechanisms of material formation of polysaccharide nanocrystals from renewable resources. In addition, it provides an in-depth description of plastics, composites, and nanomaterials from cellulose nanocrystals, chitin nanowhiskers and starch nanocrystals.
The first focused, concise and coherent treatment of nanomaterials made from renewable resources such as cellulose, chitin, and starch - for scientists, engineers, graduate students and industrial researchers in the field of polymeric materials.

Jin Huang is Professor at Wuhan University, China, since 2005. He received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Wuhan University in 2003 and afterwards took a post-doc position at the Chinese Academy of Science. He visited Grenoble Institute of Technology in 2006 as guest scientist and became adjunct professor of East China Normal University in 2009. He works on the chemical modification of natural polymers with multi-level structure, and the manufacturing of biomass-based composites and nanocomposites. He is the author of more than 100 refereed journal publications, nine book chapters, and forty patents or patent applications.
Peter R. Chang is Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and Research Scientist in the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Government of Canada. After receiving his PhD from North Dakota State University, USA, in 1982 he worked for 15 years for several consulting firms which offered solutions for companies in the agriculture and food industries. In 1995 he started his work for the Canadian Government, and in 2006 he became Professor in Saskatoon. He works on the conversion of biopolymers from biomass and grain into industrial products such as nanocomposites, biomaterials, biofuels, functional foods, and natural health products. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, more than ninety technical and confidential reports to industry, six book chapters, four patents, and several patent applications.
Ning Lin is currently conducting doctoral research at the International School of Paper, Print Media and Biomaterials (Pagora) of Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) under the supervision of Prof. Alain Dufresne. After his MSc studies in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT) under the guidance of Prof. Jin Huang, he was awarded a scholarship under the State Scholarship Fund (China Scholarship Council, CSC) to support his PhD studies in France. His research interests include chemical modification, design and development of nanocomposites and functional applications based on polysaccharide nanocrystals.
Alain Dufresne is head of the Converting-Biomaterials-Packaging Department in the International School of Paper, Print Media and Biomaterials (Pagora) at Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) in France. After his PhD at National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in France in 1991, he continued on a Post-doc position at Montréal Polytechnic Institute in Canada, after which he worked for ten years at Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble in France. Since 2003, he has worked at Grenoble Institute of Technology. He is an invited professor of Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil) and of Wuhan University of Technology (China). He has authored and co-authored more than