To fulfill the current circular economy concept, several attempts to reuse and
valorize wastes and by-products coming from different sectors (such as the agri-food,
textile, and packaging industries, among others) are being carried out at least at a lab
scale by academics, despite the increasing interest that also involves the industrial
world. One of the up-to-date strategies to transform wastes and by-products into new
added-value systems refers to the production of biochar (BC), a carbonaceous solid
residue derived from the thermo-chemical conversion, under controlled conditions, of
wastes or, more generally, biomasses. Apart from its conventional uses (such as for soil
remediation, heat and power production, low-cost carbon sequestration, and as a
natural adsorbent, among others), BC is gaining a continuously increasing interest as a
multifunctional micro-filler for different thermoplastic and thermosetting polymer
matrices. Undoubtedly, the wide possibility of producing BC from different biomass
sources, wastes, and by-products offers an attractive prospect toward a circular bioeconomy with “zero waste”. When incorporated into a polymer at different loadings,
BC can provide thermal and electrical conductivity, EMI shielding features, enhanced
mechanical properties, and flame retardance as well. This chapter aims to summarize
the current achievements in the design, preparation, and characterization of
thermoplastic polymer/biochar composites, discussing the current limitations/
drawbacks, and providing the reader with some perspectives for the future.
Keywords: Biochar, Degree of Graphitization, Electrical Conductivity, EMI Shielding, Flame Retardance, Mechanical Behavior, Thermoplastic-biochar Composites, Thermal Conductivity
