Production and characterization of bacterial cellulose fabrics

Abstract

IntroductionPlant cellulose (such as cotton, flax, and wood pulp) has long been utilized to produce textile materials. The hydrophilicity, soft hand, medium to high strength and durability, biodegradability, and easy coloration make these cellulosic materials good choices for consumer textile products. With the increasing consumption of textiles due to population growth and living standard improvement, the burden on growing these cellulose containing plants on diminishing lands has been escalating, which resulted in higher material price. The environmental impacts of growing the plants (e.g., fertilizer and pesticides, soil erosion and desertification, and water use in irrigation) and from manufacturing the cellulose into textiles (e.g., chemicals used to remove lignin and hemicellulose, water and energy use) are receiving more concerns. Therefore, people are looking for alternative materials. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is one such material that has drawn attention in recent years. BC is extracellular cellulose synthesized by a class of acetic acid producing bacteria from monosaccharides, disaccharides, and alcohols in aqueous media (Hu et al., 2014;Shah et al., 2013). Glucose chains are produced inside the bacterial body during fermentation processes and then being extruded out of the body. The chains combine and form cellulosic nanofibers. A nanofiber nonwoven web is then generated from these nanofibers on the surface of the media. BC fibers have high purity, high crystallinity, and high degree of polymerization which impart BC high tensile strength (especially wet tensile strength), high water holding capacity, and slow water evaporation rate. The porous nonwoven web structure provides the material large surface area which increases the ability of chemical modifications. Furthermore, the material is biodegradable, biocompatible, fast to produce, and threedimensionally moldable. BC has been researched for possible applications for food, biomedical, and biotechnology. Although textiles are mentioned as potential applications of BC (Çakar et al., 2014), the authors have not seen any published research studying the various properties that are critical to textile products such as apparel and footwear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using BC nonwoven as textile fabrics to make consumer products. The objectives were: 1) to study the influences of fermentation conditions on the production of BC fabric; 2) to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of BC nonwovens (thickness, weight, tensile strength, tearing strength, and stiffness); and 3) to study the possibility of producing inherently colored BC nonwovens. Materials and Testing BC Fabric Production: Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) containing Acetobacter, vinegar, cane sugar, and tea were used to prepare the aqueous bath. The fermentation was taken place in an oven at 23°C. For objective 1, parameters studied included sugar concentration in the bath (10% and 20% by weight), tea type (black, green, and red)...

Hydrogel bacterial cellulose: a path to improved materials for new eco-friendly textiles

“…Also, a wide disparity in the values of the Young's modulus was shown, with the range from 9 to 30 GPa (Ashjaran et al 2013;McKenna et al 2009). Therefore, it is safe to assume that the proposed materials show similar or higher values of tensile properties as compared to the data presented in the literature when HGBC textile fabrics are considered (Mohite and Patil 2014;Wood et al 2015). What is more, Domskiene et al (2019) reported manufacturing of kombucha-derived BC and its drying at various temperatures (25-75°C) (Domskiene et al 2019).…”

Application of Bacterial Cellulose in the Textile and Shoe Industry: Development of Biocomposites

“…In another work, in order to produce colored BC nonwovens, different natural and artificial dyes were added to the culture medium. Colors were successfully incorporated into the BC when natural dyes and the blue artificial dye were used, while other artificial dyes inhibited BC growth [46]. The dyeability of BC produced under static culture using in situ and ex situ methods was also studied using direct acid and reactive dyestuffs.…”