Nanoparticles Based on Hydrophobic Polysaccharide Derivatives-Formation Principles, Characterization Techniques, and Biomedical Applications.

Polysaccharide (PS) nanoparticles (NP) are fascinating materials that combine huge application potential with the unique beneficial features of natural biopolymers. Different types of PS-NP can be distinguished depending on the basic preparation principles (top-down vs bottom-up vs coating of nanomaterials) and the material from which they are obtained (native PS vs chemically modified PS derivatives vs nanocomposites). This review provides a comprehensive overview of an approach towards PS-NP that has gained rapidly increasing interest within the last decade; the nanoself-assembling of hydrophobic PS derivatives. This facile process is easy to perform and offers a broad structural diversity in terms of the PS backbone and the additional functionalities that can be introduced. Fundamental principles of different NP preparation techniques along with useful characterization methods are presented in this work. A comprehensive summary of PS-NP prepared by different techniques and with various PS backbones and types/amounts of hydrophobic substituents is given. The intention is to demonstrate how different parameters determine the size, size distribution, and zeta-potential of the particles. Moreover, application trends in biomedical areas are highlighted in which tailored functional PS-NP are evaluated and constantly developed further.