Improved degradability and mechanical properties of bacterial cellulose grafted with PEG derivatives

New functional materials based on bacterial cellulose (BC) grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) PEG derivatives for food packaging applications and a facile method for assessing the degradation rates of the final materials are presented. Two types of materials were obtained by grafting the BC films (BCF), respectively lyophilized BC pellicles (BCL) with three PEG derivatives of different molecular weights through radical polymerization. The BC based polymer materials were characterized by SEM, FT-IR, contact angle measurements, and TGA. Tensile tests and DMA analysis were used to compare the two types of materials in terms of shear-modulus, tensile strength and performance giving suitable information for food packaging applications. A new degradation evaluation method, that we propose herein, offers quantitative information about the degradation process in contrast with the SEM analysis, primarily used in literature, which is not decisive in all cases because it characterizes only small parts of the sample. The degradation rates evidenced that the PEG derivatives of higher molecular weight grafted on the surface of BCF led to an acceleration of the degradation process compared with the pristine samples. A good correlation was obtained between the samples analyzed by SEM after the degradation process and their degradation rates were mathematically determined.

Automated summary

New functional materials based on bacterial cellulose (BC) grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) derivatives were developed for food packaging applications. The degradation rates of the materials were assessed using a new evaluation method proposed in this study. The results showed that PEG derivatives with higher molecular weight accelerated the degradation process compared to the pristine samples. The study also established a correlation between SEM analysis and mathematically determined degradation rates.