Table 1.
Examples of BC composites and the respective improved properties
| BC reinforcement | Improved Function | References |
|---|---|---|
| Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) | Enhancement of the mechanical performances | Castro et al. (2015) and Qiao et al. (2015) |
| Dehydrogenative polymer of coniferyl alcohol (DHP) | Improving the antibacterial activity | Zmejkoski et al. (2018) |
| Silver nanoparticles | Improving the antibacterial activity | Volova et al. (2018), Tabaii and Emtiazi (2018), Shao et al. (2016a,2016b), Wen et al. (2015), Wu et al. (2018) and Pal et al. (2017) |
| Chitosan and alginate | Higher elongation, rehydration, swelling ratios and water vapour transmission | Chang and Chen (2016) |
| Hyaluronan | Improving the thermal stability, lower total surface area and pore volume, weight loss and elongation at break | Li et al. (2014a,2014b, 2015) |
| Acrylic acid | Promoting faster wound healing, enhanced epithelialization and accelerated fibroblast proliferation | Mohamad et al. (2014a,b) |
| Zinc oxide (ZnO) | Improving the antibacterial activity | Janpetch et al. (2016) |
| Arginine | Promoting proliferation, migration and expression of collagen‐I of fibroblasts and endothelial cells | Qiao et al. (2018) |
| Antibiotics | Improving the antibacterial activity | Volova et al. (2018), Shao et al. (2016a,2016b), Lazarini et al. (2016) |
| Magnetic nanoparticles (magnetite) | Improving the efficiency of chronic wounds healing | Galateanu et al. (2015) |
| Agarose | Improving the mechanical properties and water uptake | Awadhiya et al. (2017) |
| Titanium dioxide (TiO2) | Promoting healing and tissue regeneration | Khalid et al. (2017) and Khan et al. (2015) |
| C60 nanoparticles | Improving skin cancer wound therapy | Chu et al. (2018) |
| Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) | Improving the mechanical properties | Foong et al. (2018) |
| BC bilayer with different fibre densities | Improving the controlled release of different antibiotics to treat skin infections. | Lazarini et al. (2016) |
| Gold nanoparticles | Improving the antibacterial efficiency | Li et al. (2017a,2017b) |
| Montmorillonites and silver nanoparticles | Improving the antibacterial efficiency | Li et al. (2017a,2017b) |
| Sodium alginate (SA) | Improving the mechanical properties | Lin et al. (2014) |
| Graphene oxide/silver nanohybrid | Improving the antibacterial efficiency | Mohammadnejad et al. (2018) |
| Plasticizers (PEG and Glycerol) | Improving the physicochemical properties | Sun et al. (2018) |
| Hydrolysed gelatin peptide | Improving the physicochemical properties | Lin et al. (2015a,2015b) |
| Chitosan | Improving the physicochemical and antibacterial properties | Savitskaya et al. (2017), Zhang et al. (2016) |