Chitin Nanomaterials as Multifunctional Systems in Advanced Applications – Progress and Challenges toward Sustainability

There is an emerging agreement that “de-fossilization” and not “decarbonization” is the way to mitigate global warming, achieving sustainable manufacturing and a viable bioeconomy. The finite supply, nonrenewability, and associated environmental and economic challenges of conventional materials derived from fossil hydrocarbons are causative in pursuing sustainable, renewable, ecological, efficient, and practical alternatives. Chitin is a biobased hydrocarbon that ranks among the most abundant and renewable polysaccharidal materials on Earth and is momentous in the pursuit of sustainability and a circular bioeconomy. It possesses tunable surface properties with unique multidimensional physiognomy for various adaptations while exhibiting characteristic nanoscale self-ordered assemblages and chiral nematic phases at different dimensional ranges. This review reports the fundamental and functional properties of nanoscale chitin as a multifunctional material for advanced applications. A concise overview sets the background with a brief description of various chitin nanomaterials. Significant advancements in green(er) and sustainable technologies in material usage while elucidating essential research gaps and current challenges are also underscored. Finally, an outlook is provided toward consolidating the role of chitin as a primal but crucial material that offers significant developmental opportunity in the pursuit of sustainability with considerable gains toward mitigating the overbearing negative impact of the fossil economy.