Promising Sensing Platforms Based on Nanocellulose

Nanocelluloses, typically categorized into bacterial cellulose, crystalline nanocellulose, and cellulose nanofibers, are green lightweight materials with amazing properties that are emerging in modern technology as a result of their abundance, low toxicity, large surface area, and renewability. They already have shown great promise in a myriad of uses such as reinforcing agents, templates for tridimensional ordered architectures, rheological modifiers, emulsion stabilizers, and crystallization media. However, their outstanding properties and easy-to-modulate capabilities are opening new ways of applicability in the fields of medicine, forensic and food safety analyses, environmental protection, and energy storage among others. Although applications of NC are increasing over the years, there is still plenty to discover about their capabilities of such abundant nanoscale source. This chapter briefly reviews the most promising recent approaches in sensing applications, showing the advantages of each type of NC used. It is highlighted the diverse configurations of NC (as nanopowders, films, hydrogels, aerogels) found in the recent advances, mentioning their potential characteristics offered as well as the sensing mechanisms given (colorimetric, photoluminescence, mechanical deformation, and/or electrical responses). On track for a sustainable future, the complete replacement of plastics by NC is imminently owed to the great versatility, biocompatibility, abundance, degradability, and low cost of cellulose nanomaterials. Finally, an outlook on the future perspectives for filaments and paper-based and gel-like sensing platforms of NC is given in this chapter.