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MDPI, Materials, 5(6), p. 1956-1966, 2013

DOI: 10.3390/ma6051956

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Production and characterization of a new bacterial cellulose/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite

Journal article published in 2013 by Alexandre F. Leitão, João Pedro Silva ORCID, Fernando Dourado ORCID, Gama Fm, F. Miguel Gama ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is characterized for its high water holding capacity, high crystallinity, an ultrafine fiber network and high tensile strength. This work demonstrates the production of a new interpenetrated polymer network nanocomposite obtained through the incorporation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) on the BC matrix and evaluates the effect of oven drying on the morphological, mechanical and mass transfer properties of the composite membranes. Both the addition of PVA and oven drying induce the appearance of larger pores (circa 1–3 µm in average diameter) in dried BC/PVA membranes. Both types of treatments also affect the permeability of the composite, as assessed by the diffusion coefficients of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules (900, 8,000, 35,000 and 100,000 Da) across the membranes. Finally, the Young’s modulus of dry pristine BC decreases following PVA incorporation, resulting in a change from 3.5 GPa to 1 GPa and a five-fold loss in tensile strength.