Preparation and Characterization of Bacterial Cellulose/Natural Polymer Antibacterial Composites

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 4,Issue 1, Jan. 2017

Year:

2017

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Bacterial Cellulose, Chitosan, Sodium Alginate, Silver, E Coli, S Aureus

Authors:

Al-Mihyawi, RaedA.; AL-hussaini, Nazeer A.

Journal:

IJRAS

Volume:

4

Number:

1

Pages:

11-22

Month:

January

ISSN:

2348-3997

Note:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Abstract:

Bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by several strains of acetic acid bacteria has received immense consideration due to its unique structural, physic-mechanical, and biological properties. BC has served as a promising biomaterial and has been the subject of intensive research and development since last few decades. However, many of these applications have been limited by several limitations associated its physical and chemical nature such as lack of antimicrobial, magnetic, antioxidant, and conducting properties, and limited biocompatibility. These shortcomings can be overcome through the development of its composites with various materials to impart BC additional features. In current study, BC based bactericidal materials were prepared with chitosan (BC-Cs), alginate (BC-Alg), and alginate and silver nanoparticles together (BC-Alg/Ag) by added these materials in the media of cellulose. These materials were evaluated for various structural, physiological, and bactericidal properties through various techniques such as Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, water holding capacity (WHC), water release rate (WRR), porosity, swelling, filtration, and antibacterial properties. FE-SEM confirmed the structural features of BC, BC-Cs, and BC-Alg and impregnation of Ag nanoparticles into the BC-Alg composite. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of basic functional groups of Cs, Alg, and Ag in the chemical structure of BC, thus confirming the successful synthesis of BC-CS, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag composites. The WHC of BC, BC-CS, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag were found to be 125, 160, 138, 140 times their dry-weights, respectively. Porosity of BC, BC-CS, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag was found to be 58.9%, 47.8%,57.3%, 54.2%, respectively. Similarly, the swelling for BC, BC-CS, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag was found to be 64.8%, 57.6%, 62.8%, and 62.8%, respectively. Further, the filtration analysis results for BC, BC-CS, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag were found to be 23.5 ml/min, 17.75 ml/min, 21.24 ml/min, and 20.4 ml/min, respectively. The antibacterial activities of BC, BC-Cs, BC-Alg, and BC-Alg/Ag were determined through disc diffusion method and colony forming unit (CFU) method against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The results showed no antibacterial activity for pure BC and BC-Alg discs and powder. In contrast, BC-Cs and BC-Alg/Ag composites produced clear inhibition zones and significantly reduced the growth of E. coli and S. aureus. The modified BC produced in the current study can find its applications as antibacterial and antifungal materials in food packaging and storage, biomedical, and several other fields.

Full text: IJRAS_509_FINAL.pdf