Characterization of a bacterial cellulose-silica nanocomposite prepared from agricultural waste products

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has attracted considerable scientific interest and can be modified, making it more widely useful in composites with guest nanoparticles. In this study, silica nanoparticles obtained from rice husks were used to prepare BC-silica composite aerogels (CAs) via a sol-gel method. Various amount of silica nanoparticles (3, 6, 9 and 12% w/v) dissolved in 2.5 M NaOH were used as a precursor for inclusion into BC. Subsequently, it was employed to form a SiO 2 gel skeleton in a BC matrix by adding 2 M H 2 SO 4, as a catalyst. Increasing levels of silica nanoparticles led progressively lower transmittance values of BC-silica CAs. SEM images revealed a surface morphology of spheroid particles with little agglomeration. The XRD diffraction peaks were gradually covered by a broad peak of silica as increasing silica content. Similarly, FTIR spectroscopy results also indicate the presence of silica in proportion to its content. Furthermore, addition of silica nanoparticles improved the thermal properties using TGA analysis, shifting the decomposition temperature of BC up to 550°C and retaining of BC weight at least 60% with the BC sample with 3% of silica. This unique characteristic implies that silica had a stabilizing effect on polymeric cellulose. These results demonstrate an economical and environmentally friendly preparation of BC-silica CAs that can benefit material applications.

Nanocellulose from Agricultural Wastes: Products and Applications—A Review

“…In the same manner, the combination of nanocellulose with water or biological fluids results in hydrogels with properties quite similar to human tissues; thus, they are widely used in scientific areas such as tissue engineering and in vitro diagnostics [112]. Silica nanoparticles have been obtained from rice husks and were used to prepare BNC and silica composite aerogels [113].…”

Preparation and antibacterial property of silver nanoparticles loaded into bacterial cellulose

“…Polymer-based composite nanomaterials are undoubtedly one of the most important of the newly developed materials. Cellulose is one of the most successful conducting natural polymers and seems to be a good choice for compositing with metals and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) such as silver, gold, titanium dioxide, silica, zinc, and copper NPs [3,[6][7][8][9][10]. In addition, recently, the incorporation of cells and future therapeutic or in medicine applications by using the cellulosebased biomaterial has recently received much attention [11][12][13].…”

“…Based on these unique properties, BC has received considerable interest in developing techniques to produce BC-based nanocomposite materials for various industrial applications. [6][7][8][9][10]. The most promising applications of BC are in the biomedical area with applications such as wound healing, dental implants, artificial skin, scaffold materials, micro-blood vessels and tissue-engineering [14][15][16].…”