Division of Biomedical Engineering, National Defense Medical College Research Institute, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa-shi, Saitama 359-8513, Japan.
Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-H121 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan.
J Mater Chem B. 2021 May 19;9(19):3944-3966. doi: 10.1039/d1tb00339a.
Inspired by living systems, biomolecules have been employed in vitro as building blocks for creating advanced nanostructured materials. In regard to nucleic acids, peptides, and lipids, their self-assembly pathways and resulting assembled structures are mostly encoded in their molecular structures. On the other hand, outside of its chain length, cellulose, a polysaccharide, lacks structural diversity; therefore, it is challenging to direct this homopolymer to controllably assemble into ordered nanostructures. Nevertheless, the properties of cellulose assemblies are outstanding in terms of their robustness and inertness, and these assemblies are attractive for constructing versatile materials. In this review article, we summarize recent research progress on the self-assembly of cellulose and the applications of assembled cellulose materials, especially for biomedical use. Given that cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth, gaining control over cellulose assembly represents a promising route for producing green materials with tailor-made nanostructures.
受生命系统的启发，生物分子已被用作体外构建先进纳米结构材料的构建块。就核酸、肽和脂质而言，它们的自组装途径和所得组装结构主要编码在其分子结构中。另一方面，除了其链长之外，纤维素是一种多糖，缺乏结构多样性；因此，很难将这种均聚物定向组装成有序的纳米结构。然而，纤维素组装物的性质在其坚固性和惰性方面非常出色，这些组装物对于构建多功能材料很有吸引力。在这篇综述文章中，我们总结了纤维素自组装及其组装纤维素材料的应用的最新研究进展，特别是在生物医学方面的应用。鉴于纤维素是地球上最丰富的生物聚合物，控制纤维素的组装为生产具有定制纳米结构的绿色材料提供了一条很有前途的途径。
