Mechanical characteristics of artificial cell walls

Artificial plant cell walls were produced from bacterial cellulose and cell wall constituents. The artificial cell walls were stored at low, medium and high relative humidity, and then subjected to micro-mechanical tests. From chemical composition and microstructure analysis it was found that, among all artificial cell wall materials produced, the most representative analogue of natural apple cell wall was based on bacterial cellulose supplemented with xyloglucan and pectin. Uniaxial tensile tests revealed that the different cell wall materials differed in their mechanical properties; increasing the humidity during storage resulted in a decrease in the value of the secant modulus. The cell wall model material obtained may be used for the simulation of the effect of external factors on the physical and chemical properties of cell walls. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.