Journal
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS
Volume 90, Issue -, Pages 530-537Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2018.11.005
Keywords
Bacterial cellulose; Mercerization; Mechanical properties; Tissue engineering
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Effects of mercerization process on plant-based cellulose is well studied in the literature whereas the effects of mercerization on mechanical properties of bacterial cellulose is not investigated. In this work bacterial cellulose (BC) was mercerized in NaOH solution with different molar concentrations of 0, 1.50, 1.75, 2.00, 2.13, 2.25, 5.00, 7.00 and 10.00 M. The BC samples shrunk substantially with increasing NaOH concentration. At the same concentration, NaOH treatment resulted in significantly larger shrinkage than KOH treatment. Mercerization of BC samples in 7 M NaOH resulted in an order of magnitude increase in elongation from 5.4 +/- 1.6% to 50.8 +/- 5.7% along with about 30-fold reduction in Young's modulus. Mercerized samples in 4 M NaOH had maximum toughness among all groups at a value of 64.0 +/- 15.8 MJ m(-3). Changes in BC crystalline structure from cellulose I to cellulose II were characterized and confirmed semiquantitatively by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Results of this work demonstrated mercerization as a method to tune the mechanical properties of BC precisely. Mercerized BC as a biocompatible material with tunable mechanical properties shows potential to be utilized in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the future.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available