Towards the sustainable production of biomass-derived materials with smart functionality: A tutorial review

Abstract

To meet the ever-increasing demand for continuous development of human society and carbon neutralization, biomass have been demonstrated to be a pluripotent and powerful alternative. Regardless of the low cost, natural abundance, renewability, and biodegradability of biomass, the role of its unique (bio)chemical features in contributing to the on-demand regulatable structure and widely applicable versatility of the resultant has sparked growing interest. Besides, sustainable production from biomass to smart materials is believed to be one of the key strategies to achieve the global goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This review will focus on green engineering of diverse biomass feedstocks for different applications, and the proposed outline is as follows: First, renewable biomass feedstocks of different hierarchy are introduced. Second, the green preparations of biomass-dervied materials are systematically categorized from the viewpoint of the structural orientation of biomass, the correlation between the biomass’s structural feature and the sustainability assessments of preparation process is also discussed. Third, the applications in electrochemical energy storages, biomedical engineering, electronics, and sensing which feature their smart functionality were comprehensively summarized. Fourth, the advantages and the limitations of biomass-derived materials are qualitatively evaluated. Finally, future prospects and directions on the sustainable production of materials with smart functionality from biomass will be presented. We endeavor to offer comparative and balanced views, as well as insights into which biomass is particularly advantageous for specific intelligent applications.