Impact of incubation conditions and post-treatment on the properties of bacterial cellulose membranes for pressure-driven filtration

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has shown potential as a separation material. Herein, the performance of BC in pressure-driven separation is investigated as a function of incubation conditions and post-culture treatment. The pure water flux of never-dried BC (NDBC), was found to be 9 to 16 times higher than that for dried BC (DBC), in a pressure range of 0.25 to 2.5 bar. The difference in pressure response of NDBC and DBC was observed both in cross-flow filtration and capillary flow porometry experiments. DBC and NDBC were permeable to polymers with a hydrodynamic radius of similar to 60 nm while protein retention was possible by introducing anionic surface charges on BC. The results of this work are expected to expand the development of BC-based filtration membranes, for instance towards the processing of biological fluids.

Automated summary

The study found that the pure water flux of never-dried bacterial cellulose was 9 to 16 times higher than that of dried bacterial cellulose in a pressure range of 0.25 to 2.5 bar. Additionally, protein retention was possible by introducing anionic surface charges on the bacterial cellulose. These results are expected to advance the development of bacterial cellulose-based filtration membranes for various applications, such as processing of biological fluids.