Eco Breakthroughs: Sustainable Materials Transforming the Future of Our Planet

Interest in the sustainable materials sector is growing and accelerated. These materials are designed to reduce the use of non-renewable resources, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and be recyclable or biodegradable, making them highly attractive to both academia and industry. Constantly updating on innovations in this field is essential to speed up the transition to a circular economy and significantly reduce environmental impact. The paper analyzes the current status and future trends of the scientific literature for seven sustainability-related materials categories, such as sustainable materials, green materials, biomaterials, eco-friendly materials, alternative materials, material recycling and material recovery from complex products, and sustainable applied materials. Next, it assesses the impacts, benefits, and challenges associated with sustainable materials from the scientific literature according to six research fields (impact on the environment, performance and durability, economic efficiency, health and safety, social sustainability, and implementation and use). Furthermore, the paper outlines recent advances in sustainable material design, including biomimicry, nanotechnology, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, and sustainable composite materials. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis of 545 studies on sustainable materials published between 1999 and 2023 was conducted based on eight criteria, namely trend, source, author, country, keywords, thematic, co-citation, and content. The findings show that the sustainability-related materials categories have a particular distribution among the domains. Also, the thematic map analysis outlines that biopolymers, nanocellulose, and biocomposites are critical research areas for developing sustainable materials.