REVIEW PAPER

Recent advances in bacterial cellulose

Yang Huang • Chunlin Zhu • Jiazhi Yang •

Ying Nie • Chuntao Chen • Dongping Sun

Received: 12 July 2013 / Accepted: 14 October 2013 / Published online: 27 October 2013

� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract Bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by

some microorganisms has been widely accepted as a

multifunctional nano-biomaterial. It is composed of

linear glucan molecules attached with hydrogen

bonds, which appears similar to plant cellulose.

However, when compared with other conventional

natural or synthesized counterparts, BC performs

better in areas such as biomedicine, functional

devices, water treatment, nanofillers, etc. for its

distinct superior chemical purity, crystallinity, bio-

compatibility, and ultrafine network architecture.

When BC is incorporated in a material or used as a

scaffold, novel features result that are related to BC’s

intrinsic characteristics mentioned above. This review

mainly summarizes the recent developments of the

functional products fabricated with BC. Besides, the

controllable cultivation conditions should also be

discussed for expecting to make a breakthrough in

its productivity. We highlight the literatures mainly in

last 5 years, exerting ourselves to provide the state-of-

the-art opinions in areas wherever are focused on for

BC researching.

Keywords Bacterial cellulose � Nano-

biomaterials � Network architecture �Controllable cultivation

Introduction

Cellulose synthesized by plants or bacteria is an

almost inexhaustible organic polymer resource on

Earth and has global economic importance (Kim et al.

2006). By estimation, the amount of cellulose synthe-

sized globally each year is between 100 and 150

billion tons (Hon 1994). Thus, cellulose is expected to

meet the increasing demand for environment friendly

and petroleum-replacing products. These natural

polymers have been conventionally used in a wide

range of fields such as papermaking (Saikia et al.

1997), textile industry (Perepelkin et al. 1997),

medical applications (Hoenich 2007), reinforcement

agent (Bhatnagar and Sain 2005; Wu et al. 2007), etc.

for their good biocompatibility, high rigidity, fibrous

morphology and low cost.

Recently, a special natural cellulose, i.e. bacterial

cellulose (BC) has gained particular interest. BC

synthesized by certain bacteria, such as Acetobacter

xylinum, was initially reported by Brown in (1886). It

is hypothesized that bacteria produce cellulose for the

protection from ultraviolet radiation and harsh chem-

ical environment and access to oxygen (Brown 2004;

Eichhorn et al. 2001; Iguchi et al. 2000; Klemm et al.

2005; Putra et al. 2008; Retegi et al. 2010; Shoda and

Y. Huang � C. Zhu � J. Yang � Y. Nie �C. Chen � D. Sun (&)

Chemicobiology and Functional Materials Institute,

School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of

Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094,

People’s Republic of China

e-mail: sundpe301@163.com

123

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

DOI 10.1007/s10570-013-0088-z

Sugano 2005; Somerville 2006), while plant cell wall

made of cellulose provides support against osmotic

pressure. As the cellulose derived either from plants or

bacteria is biocompatible and biodegradable, it is the

potential to be used in biomedical fields.

Though the chemical constitution of BC is the chain

molecules linked by cellobiose, as same as other

cellulose, it is free of contaminant molecules, such as

lignin, hemicelluloses, and pectin, etc., which are

normally found in plant-derived cellulose. The per-

centage of cellulose content in cotton is 90, and 50 %

in wood due to some amorphous polymers that are also

embedded such as neutral and acidic polysaccharides,

glycoproteins, and waxy aromatic substances (Conner

1995). Thus BC can be easily purified with NaOH

solution with low energy consumed. Therefore, BC’s

chemical purity can also be maximally maintained

without the use of other chemicals (Sani and Dahman

2010). The degree of polymerization (DP) of BC is

ranging from 300 to 10,000 depending on the culti-

vation conditions, various additives, and finally the

bacterial strains (Vitta and Thiruvengadam 2012).

Unlike plant cellulose, BC produced from micro-

organisms has a unique mechanism in the synthesis of

chain molecules followed by a subtle self-assembly

progress. A single A. xylinum cell may polymerize up

to 200,000 glucose molecules per second (Hestrin and

Schramm 1954) with cellulose synthase or terminal

complexes (TC) presented in pores on the cell surface

and then extruded into the surrounding medium,

typically achieve the form of a ribbonlike bundles

with length from 1 to 9 lm. The details of the process

are described below and illustrated in Fig. 1.

Micrographs of the surface of the cell envelope

indicate the presence of some 50–80 porelike sites

arranged in a regular row along the longitude of the cell

and in evident juxtaposition with the extracellular

cellulosic ribbon (Brown et al. 1976; Zaar 1979). These

discrete structures of the lipopolysaccharide layer are

presumed to be the sites of extrusion for precellulosic

polymers in groups of ca. 10–15 chains to associate with

each other forming the so-called subfibrils with a width

of 1.5 nm (Ross et al. 1991). These subfibrils are then

self-assembled to form microfibrils, and then a fibrillar

ribbon is formed followed by their side by side tightly

aggregation with width ca. 50–80 nm, which are 200

times finer than cotton fibers and exhibit an extraordi-

nary high surface area (Vitta and Thiruvengadam 2012).

The spatial arrangement of the pre-microfibril aggre-

gation provides a high crystallinity up to 84–89 %

Fig. 1 The details arrangement of fibrils extruded from cell surface and their self-assembly process

2 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

(Czaja et al. 2004), while the data varies from 40 to 60 %

for plant cellulose (Jonas and Farah 1998). It results to a

typical Young’s modulus of BC in the range 15–35 GPa,

with the tensile strength in the range 200–300 MPa

(Brown et al. 1976). The relative high modulus makes it

act as reinforcing elements in polymer matrix. The

crystal structures of crystalline cellulose existed in the

cellulose derived from different resources are also

different in terms of two different crystalline phases: Iaand Ib that are corresponding respectively to triclinic and

monoclinic unit cells (Atalla and Vanderhart 1984). It

has been reported that most plant cellulose is Ib-rich,

while BC is found to be Ia-rich (Sugiyama et al. 1985),

and the proportion of cellulose Ia exceeds 80 % (Sun

et al. 2007). The crystal structure is one of the most

important factors influencing on the mechanical and

interfacial properties of the cellulose (Nishiyama et al.

2002).

BC produced in the static cultivation method seems

to be a hydrogel sheet with a three-dimensional (3D)

reticulated network structure which could be observed

under microscope (Fig. 2). The obtained never-dried

sheet has about 100 times higher in ratio between wet

and dry weight. The extremely high water content was

attributed to the native hydrophilicity of cellulose as

well as the presence of pore structure and ‘‘tunnels’’

within the wet pellicle which result in the extensive

interior surface area of the interstitial spaces of the

never dried matrix (White et al. 1989). Due to BC has

unique nanofibril network morphology which mimics,

to some extent, properties of the extracellular matrix,

it has the potential to act as a scaffold for tissue

engineering. Besides the applications in biomedical

areas, dried BC membrane has also been used as

diaphragms for loudspeakers (Iguchi et al. 2000), food

packaging films (Wanichapichart et al. 2012), and

vulnerable historic silk fabrics reinforcement for

storage and display (Wu et al. 2012). More recently,

some new areas have been focused on in order to

develop the distinctive features further of this novel

biomaterial. The integration of optical activity (Hu

et al. 2011d), electrical conductivity (Hu et al. 2011b),

magnetic nanoparticles (Zhang et al. 2011a), or

photocatalytic degradation (Zhang et al. 2011b)

materials to cellulosic matrix for certain applications

has been a hot research field in the last decades.

After all, a wider application of this promising

polysaccharide polymer apparently depends on the

practical considerations such as the scale-up capability

and production costs, so factors during its cultivation

for achieving large-scale industrial production includ-

ing carbon and nitrogen sources and bacterial species

and even fermentation instruments should also be

investigated.

BC fermentation

For improving the BC production, many species of

bacteria can be listed as the candidates such as those in

the genera Gluconacetobacter (formerly Acetobac-

ter), Agrobacterium, Aerobacter, Achromobacter,

Alcaligenes, Azotobacter, Rhizobium, Sarcina, Sal-

monella, Escherichia, etc. The metabolic products (i.e.

BC) may go through different routes before secreting

outside of cells. Therefore, scientific significance

could be found when dealing with different strains or

studying one strain with a mutation method. The

Fig. 2 BC produced in static cultivation (a) and SEM image of BC (b)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 3

123

essential nutrients as well as fermentation style will

also affect the output of BC significantly.

Screening and mutating strain for BC production

In 2001, Fujiwara et al. (2001) reported a bacterial

strain Enterobacter sp. producing bacterial cellulose

for the first time. After that, Zogaj et al. (2003) isolated

a strain from human gut and recently, Hungund and

Gupta (2010a) tried to improve its cellulose produc-

tion by investigating effects from various of carbon

sources, nitrogen sources and other factors on the

metabolism path of Enterobacter amnigenus GH-1

isolated from a rotten apple.

The pellicle at the air–liquid interface during

production of grape wine initially found as a contam-

inant was ultimately proved to be BC. Rani et al.

(2011) attempted to isolate the bacterium which is

responsible for the pellicle production. At last the

bacterium was obtained and identified as Glu-

conacetobacter sp. The yield of BC in grape extract

was found to be 7.47 g/L as dry weight after 2 weeks

of incubation under stationary condition at ambient

temperature. And in HS medium it was found to be

only 1.76 g/L. The results indicate that the bacterium

prefer grape medium to HS broth for higher produc-

tion of BC, but the specific reason is still not clear.

Though strain mutagenesis is an effective approach

to increase BC productivity, few publications about

that has been reported. Ishikawa et al. (1995) obtained

mutants of A. xylinum BPR 2001 resistant to sulfa-

guanidine by NTG (N-methyl-N/-nitro-N-nitrosogua-

nidine) treatment. Bapiraju et al. (2005) reported

mutation induced enhancement of lipase production

from Rhizopus sp. using UV radiation and NTG.

Kadam et al. (2006) successfully employed UV

mutagenesis to optimize strain of Lactobacillus del-

bruekii for lactic acid production. Hungund and Gupta

(2010b) reported strain improvement of Glu-

conacetobacter xylinus using UV radiation and ethyl

methanesulfonate (EMS). The mutant GHEM4 has a

cellulose yield of 5.96 g/L which was 50 % more than

the parental strain (GHUV4) and 98 % more than that

of wild strain (NCIM 2526). Effectiveness of UV

radiation (physical mutagen) and EMS (chemical

mutagen) in strain improvement for enhanced cellu-

lose production has been demonstrated.

However, since these mutagenesis methods have

radiation or toxicity which is rather harmful to human

health, their applications are limited. It is meaningful

to find new mutagenic treatments to increase BC yield

of BC-producing bacteria. Wu et al. (2010) increased

the BC yield with a Gluconoacetobacter xylinus strain

through mutagenesis induced by high hydrostatic

pressure (HHP) treatment. The parental strain in its

exponential phase was treated at 250 MPa and 25 �C

for 15 min to induce mutagenesis using a HHP

machine (Fig. 3). Among the mutants, strain M438

showed the highest BC hygrometric state yield

(158.56 g/L in average for five generations) and the

lowest coefficient of variation (2.4 % for five gener-

ations). Thus, HHP treatment can serve as an effective

method to cause mutagenesis with high BC-producing

ability. And then, Ge et al. (2011) studied the genetic

diversity of strain M438 and its initial strain by

amplified fragment length polymorphism. The results

indicated that strain M438 was a deletion mutant

induced by HHP, and the only deleted sequence

showed 99 % identity with 24,917–24,723 bp in the

genome sequence of Ga. Hansenii ATCC23769,

and the complement gene sequence was at

Fig. 3 Mechanical construction of the HHP equipment: 1 top

cover, 2 treatment room, 3 high pressure cylinder, 4 temperature

control system, 5 high pressure piston, 6 low pressure piston, 7

low pressure cylinder, and 8 hydraulic compress or with

automatic control system. The treatment pressure and treatment

time can be automatically controlled by the hydraulic compres-

sor, with tailor-made castor oil as pressure transmitting medium.

The treatment temperature can be kept constant by the

temperature control system (Reprinted from Wu et al. 2010

with permission from Springer)

4 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

24,699–25,019 bp with local tag GXY_15142, which

codes small multi drug resistance (SMR) protein.

Therefore, the author believed SMR might be the

inhibitory actions for BC producing.

FE-SEM images of the cellulose product after

purification and freeze-drying are presented in Fig. 4

(Kumagai et al. 2011). The width of cellulose fibrils in

A. bogorensis AJ strain and G. xylinus is ranging from

5 to 20 nm and from 40 to 100 nm, respectively,

suggesting differences in the mechanism of cellulose

biosynthesis or organization of cellulose synthesizing

sites in these two related bacterial species. It is

important to find reasons for the differences in the

quantity and morphology of cellulose produced by A.

bogorensis and G. xylinus. And this will in contrast

provide a better understanding of the mechanism of

cellulose biosynthesis.

Carbon and nitrogen sources on cellulose

production

In recent years, various carbon sources including

monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, alcohols, sugaral

cohols and organic acids, have been used to maximize

bacterial cellulose production by various G. xylinus

strains (Ishihara et al. 2002; Keshk and Sameshima

2005; Masaoka et al. 1993; Matsuoka et al. 1996;

Mikkelsen et al. 2009; Yang et al. 1998). G. xylinus has

two main operative amphibolic pathways (Fig. 5): the

pentose phosphate cycle for the oxidation of carbohy-

drates and the Kreb scycle for the oxidation of organic

acids and related compounds (Bielecki et al. 2005; Ha

et al. 2011; Ross et al. 1991; Sutherland 2001).

In order to determine the effects of various culture

conditions, initial screening with various carbon

sources (2 %) including monosaccharides, disaccha-

rides and polysaccharides was carried out using HS

medium as the base. Organic and inorganic nitrogen

sources were also studied (Rani and Appaiah 2011)

(Table 1).

The results shown from Table 1 indicate that,

glucose seems to be the best carbon source. It

demonstrates the validity of the results that various

carbon substrates could be converted to monomer

glucose by Gluconacetobacter, followed by polymer-

ization to BC (Mikkelsen et al. 2009). When various

nitrogen sources were added to the HS medium,

peptone is found to be the most effective nutrient.

However, corn steep liquor which produced the

second highest production is always chosen as a

substitution for the economic viewpoints. Obviously,

inorganic nitrogen could not act as the preferable

choice for their general low BC productivity.

In recent years, many studies have been focused on

attempts to produce BC by using alternative feed

stocks, such as food processing effluents, hemicellu-

loses in waste liquor from atmospheric acetic acid

pulping, molasses, konjak glucomannan, fruitjuice,

ricebark, black strap molasses solution, and wheat

straw (Carreira et al. 2011; El-Saied et al. 2008; Hong

et al. 2011; Kongruang 2008; Kurosumi et al. 2009).

These raw materials are abundant and either industrial/

agricultural waste or relatively inexpensive agricul-

tural products. This strategy could not only reduce

burden on environment but also achieve the goal of

large scale production with low cost.

Fig. 4 FE-SEM images of the cellulose pellicle produced by A. bogorensis (a) and G. xylinus (b) (Reprinted from Kumagai et al. 2011

with permission from American Chemical Society)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 5

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BC production in bioreacter

BC is produced as the pellicle type on the surface of

the medium under static culture conditions. However,

the traditional static culture method cannot be applied

for mass production, as it requires a long culture

period and intensive labor and results in low produc-

tivity (Chao et al. 2000). Therefore, it is infeasible for

large scale industrial production. For a higher BC

yield, low shearing force and high oxygen transferrate

are necessary in an agitate fermentation pattern with

certain strain.

Song et al. (2009) developed a method for the mass

production of BC, using a spherical type bubble

column bioreactor (Fig. 6) modified from an airlift-

type reactor. The spherical type bubble column

bioreactor with low shear and high oxygen transfer

rates could reduce cel- mutant bacteria and thus

improved the BC yield. The optimum aeration rate

was determined 1.2 vvm (6 L/min) by measuring the

kLa in a 10 L spherical type bubble column bioreactor.

The yield of BC reached to 5.6 and 5.8 g/L using

saccharified food wastes with the addition of 0.4 %

agar in the 50 and 10 L spherical type bioreactor,

respectively. And Choi et al. (2009) investigated the

productivity and physical properties of BC produced

with various different methods, such as the static

culture and the modified bubble column culture using

a 10 and 50 L spherical airlift-type bioreactor.

Different types of plastic composite support (PCS)

(Fig. 7) were implemented separately within a fer-

mentation medium in order to enhance BC production

by Cheng et al. (2009). The highest BC yield was

7.05 g/L in one of the PCS biofilm reactors mentioned

above. Later, Cheng et al. (2011) added carboxy-

methyl cellulose (CMC), a soluble form of cellulose,

previously reported to enhance BC production in

pellet form, to the BC-producing medium with the

Fig. 5 Proposed biochemical pathways for the production of BC (Reprinted from Ha et al. 2011 with permission from Elsevier)

6 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

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implementation of PCS biofilm reactor. The BC pro-

duction was improved to the maximum (*13 g/L)

when 1.5 % of CMC was applied.

BC application in medical field

Bacterial cellulose (BC) synthesized from A. xylinum

has drawn more and more attention and interest in the

field of biomedical device due to its unique structure

and properties. Characteristics, such as relatively high

tensile strength, extremely hydrophilic surface,

homologous structure with native extracellular matrix,

unique nanostructure and excellent biodegradability

and biological affinity etc. make BC as a promising

material in biomedical applications.

Table 1 Screening of carbon and nitrogen sources for pro-

duction of BC (Reprinted from Rani and Appaiah 2011 with

permission from Springer)

Carbon source (2 %, w/v) BC (%) pH

Glucose 100a 4.36

Glycerol 85.51 4.19

Sucrose 77.03 4.57

Fructose 73.49 4.58

Pectin 33.21 4.03

Arabinose 19.08 3.97

Cellobiose 16.96 4.49

Sorbitol 15.90 4.62

Galactose 15.54 4.18

Trehalose 15.19 4.52

Xylose 14.84 3.88

Rhamnose 14.13 4.62

Maltose 13.42 4.45

Starch 9.18 4.66

Mannose 5.30 4.08

Organic nitrogen source (2 %, w/v)

Yeast extract 37.28 4.63

Peptone 100a 3.51

Tryptone 0 3.09

Beef extract 57.20 3.94

Corn steep liquor 77.54 4.77

Inorganic nitrogen source (1 %, w/v)

Sodium nitrate 0 3.11

Ammonium nitrate 0 2.99

Ammonium sulphate 8.05 4.29

Ammonium acetate 4.66 5.75

a Yield from glucose and peptone 2 % taken as 100 %

Fig. 6 Apparatus of 50L spherical type bubble column

bioreactor. 1 Nozzle for inoculation; 2 Steam manometer; 3

Air outflow; 4 Nozzle for injection; 5. Thermometer; 6 A

transfer pump; 7 DO electrode; 8 pH electrode; 9 Water jacket;

10 Water jacket (inflow/outflow); 11 Air inlet; 12 Sampling

nozzle; 13 Air filter; 14 Control box of acid and alkali inlet; 15

Acid storehouse; 16 Alkali storehouse; 17 A constant-temper-

ature water bath; 18 Steam boiler; 19 Compressor; 20 Air flow

meter (Reprinted from Song et al. 2009 with permission from

Springer)

Fig. 7 Plastic composite support (PCS) tubes bound to agitator

shaft and bioreactor design (Reprinted from Cheng et al. 2011

with permission from American Chemical Society)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 7

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Wound-dressing materials

The goals of wound healing are to recover the

biological and structural function of the skin and to

block scar tissue formations. BC seems to be a suitable

substitute for human skin to create a protective barrier

as well as to deliver therapeutic compounds during the

wound-healing. Besides the criteria mentioned above,

there should be specific requirement for the desired

wound healing material.

Antimicrobial activity

First of all, the material should have antimicrobial

activity and can provide a barrier against wound

infection, which is a major factor to all wound care

procedures. BC nanofibers were used as a template for

the precipitation of silver (Ag) nanoparticles via in situ

liquid phase redox reaction between AgNO3 and

NaBH4. Ag nanoparticles with an average diameter of

1.5 nm were homogeneously spreaded on BC. Good

dispersion and nano-dimension provide Ag particles

an extremely developed specific surface, and conse-

quently guarantees the hybrid nanofibers an efficient

antimicrobial property. The colony-counting method

was conducted to investigate the antimicrobial activity

against E. coli and the reduction in bacteria for the Ag/

BC nanofibers was 99.2 % (Yang et al. 2011b). Cai

et al. (2011a) prepared the antimicrobial material in

the same way, but with an ultrasound procedure to

make Ag? penetrate into BC matrix more easily, and

as a result, the silver nanoparticles homogeneously

distributed and the amount of loading on the fibers is

also improved.

Wei et al. (2011) immersed the freeze-dried BC

film in a benzalkonium chloride solution, a cationic

surfactant type antimicrobial agent, followed by

another freeze-drying step. A stable and lasting release

of the antimicrobial agent within at least 24 h was

achieved by the prepared BC dry film, which could

afford nice permanence of the antimicrobial activity as

wound dressing.

Nanofibril network morphology

The biomedical applications of bacterial cellulose

(BC) as a dressing material are mainly dependent on

its water holding capacity (WHC) and water release

rate (WRR), which in turn depend on pore size, pore

volume and surface area (Ul-Islam et al. 2012).

As known to all, the cell-substrate interaction is

quite important in the area of tissue engineering. The

topographical of the extracellular matrix (ECM)

usually have a significant effect on cellular behavior.

Generally speaking, tissue development is controlled

in three matrix size scales. The gross shape and size of

tissue is decided by the macroscope shape (cm to mm

scale) of matrix; cell invasion and growth is controlled

by the size and structure of the matrix pore (lm); the

adhesion and gene expression of cells are adjusted by

the surface chemistry of the matrices (nm scale). Thus,

the pore size of porous substrates used in tissue

engineering has important effects on cell behavior

(Rambo et al. 2008; Cai et al. 2011b). Besides, certain

porosity is also necessary for transferring the air and

substrate onto the skin, retaining executes effectively

(Sun et al. 2011), and achieving a moist environment

to reduce wound pain.

Backdahl et al. (2008) constructed a microporous

BC scaffold by culturing A. xylinum together with

porogen materials of starch and paraffin. Porogens

could be removed with several cleaning steps. Smooth

muscle cells could migrate into the material to a

greater extent than into a pellicle produced in a static

culture. Rambo et al. (2008) cultivated BC membranes

with pin templates, allowing the bacteria to synthesize

cellulose fibers around the pins, and as a result forming

a porous membrane with pore diameters varying from

60 to 300 lm. The obtained micropore membrane

could avoid wound contraction owing to the porous

substrate effects towards prothetic cell behavior. Gao

et al. (2011b) prepared BC sponges (Fig. 8) via

emulsion freeze-drying technique in order to possess

the large pores and nanopores with a high surface area

and a high porosity. The BC sponges also exhibit

excellent cell compatibility as fibrous synovium-

derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could pro-

liferate well on and inside the matrix.

Artificial skin

Thanks to its unique network structure, high water

content, and mechanical characteristics, BC could

potentially be used not just as a wound healing

treatment, but as a semipermanent artificial skin and

induce epithelial recovery even after the severest

epithelial damage. A cell-seeded BC skin substitute

8 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

could be an improved alternative to autografting for

patients with severe skin damage (e.g. burn victims,

Stevens-Johnson syndrome, etc.) (Petersen and Gaten-

holm 2011). Lin et al. (2011) fabricated a macroporous

BC hydrogel via physical destruction, sequential

modification with different ECM (collagen, elastin

and hyaluronan), and growth factors (B-FGF, H-EGF,

and KGF) as a strategy to enhance its biodegradability

and biocompatibility. As a result, modifying BC

hydrogel with collagen or growth factors H-EGF

may be a feasible method to improve the biocompat-

ibility and thus provide highly desirable characteris-

tics for ideal skin substitutes.

Vascular tissue engineering

The emergence and increase of coronary heart

diseases (Rosamond et al. 2008) brings about the need

of replacement blood vessels. Synthetic blood vessels,

such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or Dacron,

and expanded polytetrafluorethylene (ePTFE) are the

most common vascular graft materials for lower-

extremity bypass surgery, but have satisfactory suc-

cess only with large-diameter vessels while their

performance is poor as small-diameter vessels those

with diameter \ 6 mm due to early thrombosis (Fink

et al. 2011; Rosamond et al. 2008). To date, the search

for a suitable artificial small-diameter blood vessels is

still ongoing since nothing has yet immerged to give a

satisfactory long-term success (Hamilton and Vorp

2004).

However, BC as a promising material in biomedical

applications seems to have some advantages over the

synthetic polymer mentioned above. (1) Using special

production techniques, BC can be shaped into tubes of

practically any lengths and diameters (Bodin et al.

2007b). (2) The compliance and mechanical properties

of BC resembles that of native arteries (Backdahl et al.

2006). (3) Naked BC tubes are biocompatible, and

show good blood compatibility when tested in vitro

and in vivo (Esguerra et al. 2010; Fink et al. 2010;

Helenius et al. 2006). (4) The inner surface of a BC

graft can be modified to further increase blood

compatibility (Bodin et al. 2007a). (5) and the porosity

of the BC scaffold can be altered to facilitate cell

ingrowth (Rosamond et al. 2008).

The tubular BC gel with a desired length, inner

diameter, and thickness (Fig. 9) has been synthesized

by a simple technique in a short cultivation time (Putra

et al. 2008). The growth of a BC tube in a vertical

Fig. 8 Photos of side views of a columned BC sponge, b cuboid BC sponge and top views of c columned BC sponge, d cuboid BC

sponge (Reprinted from Gao et al. 2011b with permission from Springer)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 9

123

fermentation bioreactor using silicone tubing for

support and as an oxygen delivery membrane has also

been researched by Backdahl H and his coworkers.

The tubular-shaped bacterial cellulose (BC-TS) could

be used as a blood vessel replacement (Backdahl et al.

2011; Klemm et al. 2001). The produced dense, thin

layers of BC network give the resulting tubes good

mechanical properties. These BC tubes have been

tested in a pig model as an infrarenal aortic bypass and

show promising results for using as vascular grafts in

the future.

Mechanical properties

Although BC has superior strength and stability in the

wet state (Astley et al. 2003; Nakayama et al. 2004)

like native blood vessels, it has poor elasticity

(Backdahl et al. 2006). Fibrin on the other hand, has

remarkable elasticity, reaching up to a maximum of

330 % extensibility (Liu et al. 2006), but insufficient

strength when subjected to physiological environ-

ments (Jockenhoevel et al. 2001; Shaikh et al. 2008).

Mechanical properties of real blood vessel (BV) are

attributed to its composite structure of rubbery and

stiff fibrous constituents (Shadwick 1999). Thus a

similar composite structure can be envisioned to

develop a suitable replacement material. Brown

fabricated the BC/fibrin composites by immersing

the never-dried BC sheets in the fibrin solution with

the glutaraldehyde as a crosslinker. As estimated, BC/

fibrin composites display significantly higher strength

and elongation over native BC. The result from

mechanical measurement illustrated that the compos-

ites had ultimate tensile strength, modulus and time-

dependent viscoelastic properties comparable to those

of a native small-diameter blood vessel (Brown et al.

2012).

Anticoagulant character

Biocompatibility refers to the ability of a biomaterial

to perform with an appropriate host response in a

specific situation (Williams 1987). It is well known

that, blood-contacting biomaterials and artificial

organs, such as artificial blood vessels, pumps and

artificial hearts, require improved blood compatibility

for clinical use. However, vascular substitutes avail-

able currently (e.g. Polyurethane, Dacron, and ePTFE)

still can not fully achieve the goal. Vascular graft

failure is mainly caused by thrombosis/thromboem-

bolism and intimal fibrous hyperplasia (Padera and

Schoen 2004).

Fink et al. (2010) firstly evaluated the thrombogenic

properties of vascular graft tubes based on BC, compar-

ing it with commercial vascular grafts of poly(ethylene

terephtalate) (PET) and expanded poly(tetrafluoroethyl-

ene) (ePTFE). The results showed that BC does not

induce plasma coagulation to any great extent. In

comparison with PET and ePTFE shown in Fig. 10,

BC performed very well and was found to induce the

least and slowest activation of the coagulation cascade.

Wan et al. (2011a) prepared a novel class of

nanofibrous scaffold for vascular tissue engineering by

hybridizing heparin and bacterial cellulose for pre-

venting the formation of blood clot. Heparin has been

widely used for the surface modification of various

biomaterials related to vascular use (Linhardt et al.

2008; Oliveira et al. 2003), because it is an anticoag-

ulant that prevents thrombus. In another way, Andrade

et al. (2010, 2011) attempted to modify BC surface

with the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) which could

act as an adhesive between BC and endothelial cells.

Almost no platelets were adhered when endothelial

cells were cultured simultaneously. In contrast, BC

seeded with endothelial cells, which mimicks the

native vessel, would obviously improve its blood

compatibility.

Fig. 9 The BC-TS gels cultured in the silicone tubes of various

inner diameters: a–f lateral view of BC-TS with an outer

diameter of 20, 10, 5, 4, 3, and 1 mm, respectively, and g top

view of BC-TS with an outer diameter of 10 mm (Reprinted

from Putra et al. 2008 with permission from Elsevier)

10 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

Bone tissue regeneration

Bone is made of a matrix comprised largely of

collagen which is mineralized by hydroxyapatite. This

results in stiffness and strength to the composite. As

Webster and Ahn described, bone can be viewed as a

hierarchical nanostructure biomaterial, starting from

the smallest collagen molecules (1 nm in diameter)

connected with apatite nanocrystals (5 nm in diame-

ter) to the ends, forming mineralized collagen nanof-

ibers (50 nm in width) first, then fiber bundles, bone

lamella (3–7 lm), bone osteons (10–500 lm), finally

bone (Webster and Ahn 2007). A synergistic scaffold

has been developed in order to mimic this hierarchical

structure of bone (Wang and Yu 2010). As one of the

most popular biomemetic approaches for bone tissue

engineering, electrospun nanofibers made of synthetic

polymers have been intensively investigated as bio-

materials for bone regeneration (Jang et al. 2009).

However, nanofiber itself cannot fulfill the mechanical

strength requirement for bone; thus, it has to be

applied with the strong substrate materials (Wang

et al. 2010).

As mentioned above, bone tissue is mainly com-

posed of hydroxyapatite (HAp) and collagen. BC is an

attractive alternative to mimic collagen fibers because

of its biocompatibility, high tensile strength in dry and

wet states, fine fibril network, high crystallinity, and

moldability. As a result, BC has been focused on using

as a potential bone tissue scaffold for its nanostructure

and morphological similarities with collagen which

could act as a matrix for providing maximum integra-

tion with cells and body fluids. In addition, BC also has

a nanostructure surface which facilitates the adhesion

of cells.

HAp has been extensively investigated in bone

regeneration and becomes a substitute for bone and

teeth regeneration because of its excellent biocom-

patibility, non-inflammatory, non-toxic, non-immu-

nogenic and bioactivity, especially the nanoscale HAp

(Liao et al. 2003). To imitate the sedimentation and

growth of HAp crystals on collagen fibrils surface,

simulated body fluid (SBF) solution is a common

method for fabricating the BC/HAp composites.

However, owing to that the hydroxyl group exposed

out of cellulose does not have enough activity to

Fig. 10 Representative time-lapse images from imaging of

coagulation tests in PFP at the exposed lumen of PET, ePTFE

and BC graft samples. Graft material samples are attached along

the left wall in the images. The colour represents the density of

the formed fibrin network. PET demonstrates a fast activation of

the coagulation process while BC demonstrates an intermediate

activation and ePTFE only activates coagulation modestly.

From the images it seems that propagation of coagulation from

the surface is faster from both PET and ePTFE graft samples

than from the BC sample. (Reprinted from Fink et al. 2010 with

permission from Elsevier)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 11

123

absorb Ca2? at the initial stage, surface modification

of cellulose before mineralization should be con-

ducted in advance.

Surface modification for mineralization

Gao et al. (2011a) introduced the e-polylysine (PLL), a

natural coming peptide, to the surfaces of BC nanof-

ibers via crosslinking method by using procyanidins as

crosslinker. The bioactivity of BC nanofibers coated

with PLL was demonstrated by the bone-like HAp

deposition throughout the scaffold in a simulated body

fluid (SBF). When BC/PLL was immersed in CaCl2solution, Ca2? was absorbed quickly onto the surface

of the fibers by electrostatic interactions between Ca2?

and –COOH of PLL. Subsequently, CO32- and PO4

3-

in the SBF rapidly combined with Ca2? attached on

the BC/PLL nanofibers to form the nuclei of HAp. The

nuclei then underwent a mineralization process to

generate low crystallinity, platelet-like carbonated

HAp along the PLL-BC fibers and finally the miner-

alized BC/PLL nanocomposites were obtained which

were very similar to the architecture and composition

of natural bone.

Yin et al. (2011a) prepared the nanocomposites by

the adsorption of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to

initiate the nucleation of HAp and Wang et al.

(2011a) replaced it with the cost-effective gelatin

and furthermore a better cell-binding properties were

obtained. Wan et al. (2011b) also confirmed the

increased amount of COOH group on the carbon

nanofibers after oxidized in nitric acid.

As the fluorescence microscopy analysis demon-

strated that osteoprogenitor cells preferred adhesion to

mineralized BC over pure BC scaffolds (Fig. 11)

(Zimmermann et al. 2011), and nano-otholits regarded

as an osteoinductor, stimulate bone regeneration and

enable bigger migration of the osteoblasts for the

formation of the bone tissue when coupled with

collagen and BC membranes. The biomaterial pre-

sented in the ear internal bony fishes, is constituted of

some elements that are constituents of the bones, such

as collagen (protein) and otoliths together with a

gelatinous matrix and calcium carbonate. As a result,

higher osteoblast activity can be observed in the

histological experiment (de Olyveira et al. 2011).

Other applications in medical field

Mohd Amin et al. (2012) prepared the hydrogels for

drug delivery with powdered BC and acrylic acid by

exposure to accelerated electron-beam irradiation.

Results suggested that the hydrogels were both

thermo- and pH-responsive thus made it a candidate

in a controlled delivery system for protein based drugs.

Cellulose fabricated together with micro-channels

(Ø * 500 lm) in order to mimic the ultrastructure

of the central region of the knee meniscus. Results

showed that the micro-channels could facilitate the

alignment of cells and collagen fibers, and the parallel

orientation of collagen fibers in contrast strengthen the

tissues, making it suitable for knee menisci and

tendons replacement (Martınez et al. 2012). Recouv-

reux et al. (2011) synthesized the large, organ-like

Fig. 11 Fluorescent microscopy images (blue stain nucleus, red stain actin): a pure BC control scaffold and b mineralized BC scaffold

(Reprinted from Zimmermann et al. 2011 with permission from Elsevier)

12 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

three-dimensional BC hydrogels with the potential

applications in implantable tissue and organ scaffolds

such as kidney or liver. Tests in structural character-

istics, mechanical properties and biocompatibility are

all carried out and a superior performance could be

totally expected. Also, a sponge prepared by cross-

linking blended BC and sodium alginate solution

following with the freeze-drying process has been

developed for the use as mucosal flaps in oral tissue

regeneration. The composites with 30 % alginate have

advantages in terms of biocompatibility structural

stability and a good tear resistance for sewing. The

sponges could support the proliferation of human

keratinocytes (HaCat) and gingival fibroblasts (GF)

cells (Chiaoprakobkij et al. 2011). A total of 30

6-month-old New Zealand white male rabbits have

been tested for laryngeal reconstruction, which is

made of bacterial cellulose. Results demonstrated that

the material caused no significant foreign-body reac-

tion and remained stable throughout 4 months of

follow-up (de Souza et al. 2011).

What should be mostly concerned in this field

BC as a commercially available material for biomed-

ical applications has attracted great interest for various

benefits over its synthetic polymer counterparts.

However, the relatively poor biodegradability in the

human body for the lacking of appropriate glycoside

hydrolases, perhaps was regarded as the obstacles in

hindering further application of this material. Besides,

the biodegradable materials must possess a controlla-

ble biodegradation rate that could match with the tissue

regeneration rate to allow the cells to grow before

bioabsorption of the scaffold during the healing

progress (Wang et al. 2011b). In order to solve this

problem, Peng et al. (2012) prepared a new kind of

degradable oxidized bacterial cellulose (OBC) by

oxidizing BC in the presence of nitrogen dioxide

(NO2). Hu and Catchmark (2011) developed a bioab-

sorbable bacterial cellulose (BBC) material, which

integrated one or more cellulose degrading enzymes

(cellulases). Both of their degradation rate could be

adjusted under the controllable preparation progress.

From another point of view, BC degraded in vivo

would probably make nanofibers release from the

implanted tissue. Hence, it is necessary to concern

about the safety and toxicology of BC especially for a

longer period of time (up to 1 year) (Pertile et al. 2012).

Besides plenties of researches concentrating on this

field, some companies have launched several com-

mercial products especially in wound healing system.

A Brazilian company, BioFill Produtos Bioetecnolog-

icos (Curitiba, PR Brazil) developed a series of

products based on BC, including the following:

Biofill� and Bioprocess� (used in the therapy of

burns, ulcers as temporary artificial skin), and Gengi-

flex� (applied in treatment of periodontal diseases)

(Jonas and Farah 1998). Another company, Xylos

Corporation in the US, has developed several medical

devices using BC since 1996. From then on, the

company kept improving its own technology and

successfully obtained the Food and Drug Administra-

tion (FDA) approval on its products. The XCell�

family offered by the company has been marketed in

the US since 2003 (Czaja et al. 2006). Unlike BC

dressings manufactured by Biofill�, the Xcell� prod-

uct is claimed to have a dual-function of both

hydration and absorption to maintain the ideal mois-

ture balance, which is originally considered to be a

contradiction and hardly obtained in practice. It is

based on the fact that it conforms to wounded and

intact skin differently (Alvarez et al. 2004). Besides

the problems mentioned, a particularly efficient strain

without frequent mutations over time and large-scale

fermentation system with high performance should be

further investigated for a breakthrough to improve the

commercial application in medical field.

BC used for sewage purification

Discarding liquid effluents containing heavy metals,

or organic dyes without treatment is of great concern.

Due to their toxic effect to the health of human beings

and other livings, it is important to remove the

pollutants from wastewater before it is drained.

Functionalized BC used for adsorption

BC is attractive to be prepared as an adsorbing

material for the remedy of pollution problems due to

its advantageous properties: (1) high mechanical

strength and good chemical stability, which are

usually lacked in natural sorbents such as chitosan

(Mladenova et al. 2011), and (2) ultrafine nanofiber

network and high specific surface area, which is

closely related to adsorption efficiency. Oshima et al.

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 13

123

(2008) prepared phosphorylated bacterial cellulose

(PBC) as an ion-exchanger that exhibited a high

adsorption capacity for various transition metal ions

and lanthanide ions. As large adsorbates cannot access

internal adsorption sites, adsorption of large adsor-

bates proceeds only at the surface of the adsorbent.

Oshima et al. (2011) found PBC showed much higher

adsorption capacity for macromolecules such as

proteins than that of phosphorylated plant cellulose

(PPC) under identical conditions due to its larger

surface area (Fig. 12).

To increase the metal ion adsorption of BC, it was

chemically modified by introducing different com-

plexing groups. Recently, various chemically

modified BCs as new adsorbents or catalyst for

pollutants in wastewater have been developed. Dieth-

ylenetriamine BC (EABC) (Shen et al. 2009), carbo-

xymethylated BC (CM-BC) (Chen et al. 2009b) and

amidoximated BC (AM-BC) (Chen et al. 2009a,

2010b) have been prepared for adsorptive removal of

Cu2? and Pb2?, and their adsorption properties as well

as the adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms

were studied. The authors suggested that the mecha-

nism for the adsorption of Cu2? onto AM-BC could be

mainly attributed to the formation of metal complexes

with both the nitrogen atoms in the amidoxime groups

and the oxygen atoms in the hydroxyl groups. While in

the adsorption process for Pb2?, precipitation played

Fig. 12 Conceptual

illustration of adsorption of

large biomacromolecules

such as proteins as well as

small molecules on PBC and

PPC. (Reprinted from

Oshima et al. 2011 with

permission from Elsevier)

14 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

an important role along with electrostatic interactions,

although chelation action also worked during the

adsorption process. Yin et al. (2011b) modified BC

with succinic anhydride in different methods, and its

adsorption capacity as well as mechanism of Cu2? was

investigated, the results showed that the adsorption

was affected by the morphology and the degree of

substitution (DS) of adsorbents.

Since BC nanofibrils networks have been used as a

template for the non-aggregated growth of magnetic

particles (Olsson et al. 2010b), some magnetite

nanoparticles (MNPs) such as hematite, magnetite,

and goethite (Gimenez et al. 2007), which have been

used as effective adsorbents for metal removal were

also introduced to BC to enhance the metal removal

performance. Nata et al. (2011) prepared aminated

magnetite-BC nanocomposite via one-pot thermal

synthesis in solution phase. The magnetite nanoparti-

cles deposited along the BC nanofibrils played a

synergistic effect on arsenic adsorption with surface

functionalized amine groups. In addition, the com-

posite containing magnetic particles possess super-

paramagnetism, so it can be recollected under a

magnetic field. Timko et al. (2004), Zhu et al. (2011)

prepared spherical Fe3O4/BC nanocomposites used for

removing heavy metal ions from sewage. In their

work, the spherical Fe3O4/BC nanocomposites can be

reused again after the adsorbed heavy metal ions are

eluted. In Nata’s work (Nata and Lee 2010), an easily

retrievable carbonaceous pellicle was synthesized by

one-step mild hydrothermal process to solve the

difficulties in recovery which usually encounters in

the direct application of carbonaceous nanoparticles

for heavy metal ion adsorption. Moreover, acrylic acid

was employed during hydrothermal carbonization to

increase the surface carboxyl content and enhance its

metal ion adsorption capacity, with the result of a high

adsorption capacity towards Pb2? and Fe3?, approx-

imately, 200 and 1,134 mg/g, respectively.

BC used as a matrix in catalyzing

Apart from its applications in absorption of metal ions

from wastewater, BC was provided as a template for

the synthesis of various inorganic nanomaterials, such

as CdS (Yang et al. 2011a), TiO2 (Sun et al. 2010c;

Zhang et al. 2011c), Pa0 (Vyjayanthi and Suresh

2010), ZnO (Hu et al. 2010), Cu2O (Liu et al. 2011)

nanoparticles for efficient catalysts for pollutant

abatement.

Sun et al. (2010b) prepared a novel Pd–Cu/BC

composite catalyst used for water denitrification. In

this research, BC was used as a supporting material,

and Pd–Cu nanoparticles of about 4.0 nm were

homogeneously and densely precipitated on BC

surface for its nanofibrillar structure and large specific

surface area. The Pd–Cu/BC catalyst exhibits high

selectivity to the formation of nitrogen up to 94.4 %

and a relative high catalytic activity which is twofold

compared to Mikami’s report (Mikami et al. 2003).

The deposited inorganic nanoparticles were well-

dispersed on BC surface showing high reactivity as a

catalyst for water-soluble textile dyes.

Comparing to commercial photocatalyst P25, Sun

Dongping’ group prepared much better photocatalytic

organic–inorganic hybrids with BC substrate and

nanoparticles such as TiO2 (Sun et al. 2010c) and

CdS (Yang et al. 2011a). The nitrogen-doped BC/TiO2

hybrid nanofibers prepared by a controlled surface

hydrolysis method exhibited an increase in surface

area of much as 156- and a 25-fold increase of pore

volume compared with the BC fibers (Fig. 13). The

photocatalytic activity of BC/TiO2 hybrid nanofibers

with larger surface-to-volume ratio and smaller crys-

tallite size is much higher than that of P25 when

degraded methyl orange (MO) under UV irradiation.

Similarly, when homogeneously incorporated with

CdS nanoparticles the hybrid nanofibers showed high-

efficiency photocatalysis capacity by which 82 %

methyl orange (MO) was degraded under visible light

irradiation for 90 min. The degradation rates for

5-cycle reuses were 82, 80.4, 78.6, 78, and 77.3 %,

respectively. The slightly decreased photocatalytic

reactivity (Fig. 14) of the photocatalyst indicates a

relatively superior stability and reusability in practical

water treatment.

Applications in electrical, magnetic and optical

fields

As a natural polymer, BC has obtained considerable

attention on account of its high tensile strength and

crystallinity, nanoscale and biocompatibility. Many

new application fields were found nowadays, such as

electrical materials, optical materials, magnetic

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 15

123

materials. Therefore, functionality nanomaterials have

been attracted great scientific interest along with the

increasing demand of new technologies for the

development of electronic devices, sensors, intelligent

clothes, to be employed in several fields including

biology, medicine, defense, agriculture, etc.

Electrical materials

Due to their high strength and stiffness associated with

renewability, biocompatibility and biodegradability,

cellulose nanofibers act as very promising support

materials for conductive additives (Iguchi et al. 2000).

We know that BC is a non-conducting material, but

it turns into conduct when some conductive nanom-

aterials are added in. Muller et al. (2011, 2012) coated

BC surface with both conductive polypyrrole (PPy)

and polyaniline (PANI) through in situ oxidative

chemical polymerization by using FeCl3�6H2O as

oxidant. As a result, a continuous conducting layers

were formed on the surface of BC nanofiber with the

constitution of a core–shell structure. It is reported that

the electrical conductivity of the composites are

dependent on oxidant and monomer concentration as

well as the reaction time.

Fig. 13 SEM and TEM images of BC nanofibers. a A general view of the nanofibers. b A TEM image of the nanofibers. c–d TEM

images of BC/TiO2 hybrid nanofibers (Reprinted from Sun et al. 2010C with permission from Royal Society of Chemistry)

Fig. 14 The decrease of MO concentration with visible light

irradiation by recycling use of CdS/BC. C is the dye concentra-

tion and C0 is the initial concentration of MO (Reprinted from

Yang et al. 2011a with permission from Elsevier)

16 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

Similarly, an ordered flake-type morphology of BC/

PANI nanocomposites were prepared with an out-

standing electrical conductivity and high special

capacitance (Wang et al. 2012). The conductivity of

BC/PANI nanocomposite films obtained could be as

high as 5.1 S/cm, which is more than 100 times

improvement compared with the values from the latest

literature (Chan et al. 1995, 2010a; Lee et al. 2012),

while the mass-specific capacitance could reach a

level of 273 F/g at a current density 0.2 A/g, which is

comparable to that of composites composed of 20 wt%

of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and 80 wt% of PANI

(305 F/g) (Khomenko et al. 2005) and that of

graphene-PANI nanocomposites (*300 F/g) (Gomez

et al. 2011). Both of the superior characteristics could

be attributed to the well-controlled composite mor-

phologies with good dispersion and suitable size of

PANI flakes (Fig. 15). It is estimated that DMF plays

an important role in abundant aniline dispersion and

self-assembly onto BC nanofibers and in its 3D

networks for polymerization. Furthermore, the com-

posites also behave a superior electrochemical stabil-

ity with about 94.3 % of initial capacitance after 1,000

cycles. It could be ascribed to the strong interaction

between the BC core and the PANI shell.

Besides, some of BC derivatives have also been

found to be conducting. Wang et al. (2008) reported

the preparation of benzoylated bacterial cellulose

(BBC) through esterification of BC with benzoyl

chloride. Benzoyl chloride reacts with the hydroxyl

groups on the glucopyranose unit of BC, and eventu-

ally benzoyl substituents are attached to the BC

backbone to form the BBC, which is one of the

potential candidates for sensors, high-level piezoelec-

tric and optical materials. With gradual substitution,

the molecular chain of the BBC becomes semirigid

and displays an interesting thermotropic liquid crys-

talline phase.

BC membranes were also used as flexible substrates

for the fabrication of Organic Light Emitting Diodes

(OLED) (Legnani et al. 2008), which holds great

promise in research dedicated to the development of

new optoelectronic and photonic devices. These

electroluminescent (EL) devices have the advantages

of being easy to make, with low operating voltages,

and the possibility of a wide selection of emission

colors through the molecular design of organic

materials. Carbon paste electrode (CPE) consisting

of carbon powder and water-immiscible liquid binder

is one of the most commonly used electrodes in

electrochemical investigations. A novel nano-dimen-

sion carbonized BC based on CPE (BCPE) was

developed for the purpose of enhancing the sensitivity

and selectivity according to the report of Liang et al.

(2009).

Liang et al. (2012) have developed a simple and

inexpensive method to fabricate highly conductive

and stretchable composites using BC pellicles as

starting materials. The prepared pyrolyzed BC (p-BC)/

polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites exhibit a

high electrical conductivity of 0.20–0.41 S/cm, which

is much higher than conventional carbon nanotubes

and graphene-based composites. It is believed that the

outstanding electromechanical properties of the com-

posites are due to the robust and preformed 3D

networks of the p-BC aerogels that provide intercon-

nected pathways through which electrons can quickly

move.

Magnetic materials

Magnetic nanomaterials have been investigated for

biomedical, data storage and device applications.

Materials combining BC with magnetic nanoparticles

are interested for the current investigation. In previous

methods, nanoparticles were mixed directly with

polymer matrix, but nowadays, lots of new approaches

are appearing.

Fig. 15 FE-SEM images of BC/PANI nanocomposites with

86 wt % PANI prepared from DMF/H2O (1:2, v/v) at 0 �C

(Reprinted from Wang et al. 2012 with permission from

American Chemical Society)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 17

123

The fibrous network structure, apart from providing

high mechanical strength, offers micro/nanoporous

spaces, which can be used as reaction chambers for

precipitation of nanoparticles with the BC fibers

providing a support structure to hold the particles.

Vitta et al. (2010) used BC as a support material to

precipitate Ni nanoparticles at room temperature by

chemical reduction of Ni-chloride hexahydrate. The

Ni loaded onto bacterial cellulose is found to be

ferromagnetic at room temperature.

Polymer-nanoparticle composites which combine

the properties of the polymer and the nanoparticle in a

synergistic manner have attracted great attention for

the use in various fields. Zhang et al. (2011a) prepared

a flexible magnetic membrane based on BC with

amphiphobicity. It was prepared firstly by the in situ

synthesis of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles on the BC

nanofibers and then the fluoroalkyl silane (FAS)

modification. The fabrication procedure and sche-

matic diagram of testing is shown in Fig. 16. The

hierarchical micronanostructure of micro- and nano-

sized Fe3O4 deposited on the fibers with the diameter

of 80–100 nm in 10 mol/L FeCl2�4H2O/20 mol/L

FeCl3�6H2O appropriately increases its surface rough-

ness, which leads to its highest amphiphobicity. The

fluorinated membrane with appropriate roughness

showed the highest water contact angle (WCA) of

130 �C and oil contact angle (OCA) of 112 �C. Proper

roughness can enhance hydrophobicity of a solid

surface leading to high contact WCA (Marins et al.

2011). This study indicated an effective way to

fabricate the flexible and magnetic BC membranes

with self-cleaning properties by increasing the surface

roughness and decreasing the surface energy of

material.

Optical materials

A substantial amount of work has been carried out in

the area of nanocomposite materials for optical

Fig. 16 Schematic illustration for the flexible magnetic nanohybrid membrane with amphiphobic surface (Reprinted from Zhang et al.

2011a with permission from Elsevier)

18 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

applications. Among them, cellulose-based nanocom-

posite is one of the most potential candidates. It has the

properties of light transmittance for its nano-sized

fibers, which are smaller than the wavelength of

visible rays. Cai and Yang 2011 prepared a biode-

gradable, biocompatible and optically active poly(3-

hydroxybutyrate)/bacterial cellulose PHB/BC nano-

composite and measured its light transmittance to

investigate how the BC affects the transparency of the

nanocomposite. The result showed that the transpar-

ency of the PHB/BC nanocomposite was high due to

the homogeneous nano-sized spherulite and nanofibril

of PHB and BC. Lots of researchers have used

cellulose nanofibril to prepare optically transparent

composites which have potential applications such as

display devices, coatings and lenses.

BC hydrated membranes present nanometric retic-

ulated structure (Fig. 2) that can be used as a template

in the preparation of new organic–inorganic hybrids.

BC-silica hybrids (Fig. 17) were prepared from BC

membranes and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) at neutral

pH conditions at room temperature (Barud et al. 2008).

The new hybrids are still stable even up to 300 �C and

display a broad emission band under UV excitation. It

can be assigned to electron–hole recombination in

oxygen related defects located on the particles surface.

The tunable emission color is an interesting property

observed for these new hybrids with new perspectives

of applications in optical devices. This research opens

a new direction in search for new phosphors.

The photochromic BC nanofibrous membranes

containing 10,30,30-trimethyl-6-nitrospiro(2H-1-benz-

opyran-2,20-indoline) (NO2SP) were successfully

prepared by surface modification of BC nanofibers

with spiropyran photochromes by Hu et al. (2011d).

The result indicates that the surface modification with

spiropyran photochromes expands new applications of

BC nanofibers and those photochromic nanofibers

with excellent photosensitivity (Fig. 18) have great

potentials for sensitive displays, biosensors and other

optical devices.

Bacterial cellulose nanowhiskers

Nanowhisker is usually regarded as a category of

organic filler, which could act as the reinforcing

elements with the morphology of the whisker-like

nanofibrils. Each cellulose nanofiber can be consid-

ered as a string of cellulose crystals which are linked

by disordered or paracrystalline regions. With the

purpose of extracting nanowhiskers from its precursor,

cellulosic materials are usually subjected to hydrolysis

in order to removing the amorphous domains and

retaining highly crystalline residue. Afterwards, nano-

whiskers could be obtained in a stable suspension,

followed by repeated steps of centrifugation and

rinsing. Due to its high stiffness and relatively ease

of preparation, cellulose nanowhiskers have received a

great deal of interest as a reinforcing agent in

nanocomposites, especially when their comparatively

lower density is taken into account (i.e. possessing

~3.5-fold of specific modulus compared to steel)

(Soykeabkaew et al. 2012). It could be predicted that

natural fibers are a viable alternative to inorganic/

mineral based reinforcing fibers in commodity ther-

moplastic composite materials as long as the right

processing conditions are used and for applications

Fig. 17 SEM images of BC membranes (left) and BC-silica (66 wt %) composite (right) (Reprinted from Barud et al. 2008 with

permission from Springer)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 19

123

where higher water absorption may be not so critical

(Azizi Samir et al. 2005).

As to bacterial cellulose, it is well known for its

superior properties over plant cellulose. Bacterial

cellulose having high purity, high crystallinity and

excellent biological affinity, is the ideal reinforcing

component for biopolymer composites (Tashiro and

Kobayashi 1991). It has a high Young’s modulus up to

114 GPa (Habibi et al. 2010). In the case of BC, there

is no hemicellulose or lignin to remove. As a result, the

extraction method pointed that BC nanofibers are

obtained in the centrifugation precipitate instead of the

supernatant which is usually preserved in the plant

cellulose hydrolysis because impurities usually remain

in the solid precipitate (Martınez-Sanz et al. 2011a)

and, thus, the yield can be enhanced to the level of

89 % based on the dry weight of bacterial cellulose

(Martınez-Sanz et al. 2011b; Olsson et al. 2010a)

versus yields around 1–5 % when the whiskers are

obtained from the liquid supernatant. Besides, a higher

aspect ratio (L/d, L being the length and d the

diameter) of the nanofiber is also a contributor in

increasing the stress transfer efficiency. An increased

aspect ratio will increase the surface area of the

reinforcing phase that is effectively in contact with the

polymer and facilitates easy stress transfer through

filler polymer matrix adhesion (George 2012).

Methods for acid hydrolysis

The most commonly employed method for the

processing of cellulose nanocrystals is by employing

acid hydrolysis. The acid treatment leads to the

removal of the amorphous domains that are regularly

distributed along the microfibers, and leads to the

formation of rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (Fig. 19)

(Habibi et al. 2010).

Martınez-Sanz et al. (2011a, b, 2012) achieved the

BC nanowhiskers by the method of sulfuric acid

hydrolysis. Sulfuric acid hydrolysis leads to stable

aqueous suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals which

are negatively charged and thus, do not tend to

aggregate. A dispersion of individual whiskers can be

demonstrated by the phenomenon of flow birefrin-

gence (Azizi Samir et al. 2004). The BC nanocrystals

(BCNC) which were well separated in solution would

show flow birefringence, as shown in Fig. 20 (Yun

et al. 2010).

During the hydrolysis process, esterification of the

surface hydroxyl groups from cellulose takes place

and as a consequence, sulfate groups are introduced

(Ranby 1949). Unfortunately, as is shown in Fig. 21

(Martınez-Sanz et al. 2011a), even treated for a short

period, the sulfate groups caused a significant decrease

in degradation temperatures and an increase in char

fraction confirming that the sulfate groups act as flame

retardants. However, with the typical processing

temperatures for thermoplastics often exceeding

200 �C, the thermostability of the crystals is important

for this application (Roman and Winter 2004).

The Spanish group optimized the process by

changing the concentration of sulfuric acid and the

time for hydrolysis. The effect of neutralization and

dialysis after the acid treatment on the thermal

stability was also studied. They concluded that

neutralization produced a slight increase in the

crystallinity index, and, most importantly, it led to a

remarkable increase on the BC nanofibers thermal

stability, which is even higher than the native BC,

while the dialysis applied made no sense. As they

explained that, the crystalline domains which are

thermally stronger than the amorphous fractions, and

sulfate groups introduced during hydrolysis are further

removed (Martınez-Sanz et al. 2011a).

Fig. 18 The fluorescent effect of BC-NO2SP membranes (0.06

wt % NO2SP) under different UV irradiation time of 365 nm

UV light conditions: a before UV irradiation, b after UV 10 s,

c after UV 30 s, d after UV 60 s, and e after UV 120 s

(Reprinted from Hu et al. 2011d with permission from Springer)

20 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

An alternative is to use hydrochloric acid, which

produces nanocrystals without any surface charges

unlike sulfuric acid hydrolysis produces. However,

the absence of such surface charges promotes the

aggregation of cellulose through hydrogen bonding

(George 2012). Additionally, new microporosity is

observed in HCl treated cellulose, especially in the

upper fraction which refers to the smaller suspended

nanofibers. It is hypothesized that this new micropo-

rosity results either from the delamination of the

cellulose crystal sheets when the amorphous cellu-

lose is removed; or from the hydrolysis of amorphous

cellulose in between bundles of elementary fibrils

(Guo and Catchmark 2012).

Methods for cellulases hydrolysis

Preparation of nanofibers by concentrated acid solu-

tion is energy consuming, environmentally hazardous,

poor thermal stability and also significantly lower

degree of polymerization (DP), which therefore

reduced its mechanical property in nanocomposites

(Zimmermann et al. 2004). Thus a novel method to

produce cellulose nanocrystals which retains some of

the native structural properties of BC was tested using

a commercially available cellulase preparation. The

widely-accepted mechanism for enzymatic cellulose

hydrolysis suggests that three different types of

cellulases work synergistically in a cellulase complex

Fig. 19 Transmission electron micrograph from a dilute suspension of hydrolyzed BC

Fig. 20 Photograph of the dispersions of BCNC in water after

hydrolysis in H2SO4 solution for 1 h (a), 2 h (b) and 3 h (c),

viewed through crossed polarizers (Reprinted from Yun et al.

2010 with permission from Taylor and Francis)

Fig. 21 DTG curves of native BC, BCNW treated with H2SO4

for 2 and 48 h (Reprinted from Martınez-Sanz et al. 2011a with

permission from Elsevier)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 21

123

during this process (Lynd et al. 2002; Gusakov et al.

2007). George et al. (2011) utilized the cellulase at its

optimum conditions in the process of hydrolysis, and

the results depicted in Fig. 22 revealed a better

thermal and strength properties compared to the

nanocrystals obtained from sulfuric acid hydrolysis.

As what we were expected that, when incorporated

the nanofibers into polyvinylalcohol (PVA), the

nanocomposites exhibited higher melting temperature

(Tm) and enthalpy of melting (DHm) than those of

pure PVA, suggesting that the addition of nanocrystals

modified the thermal properties of PVA.

When BCNC acts as a filler in composite, it usually

improves the reinforcement notability resulting from

the load bearing can be shared with or concentrated

into the nanofiber. The modified mechanical proper-

ties combined with nanocrystal are listed in Table 2 by

George group (2012, 2011), and the BCNC in the

nanocomposites is extracted from cellulase and

hydrochloric acid respectively.

Data from table listed above reveals that BCNC

produced by relatively mild enzyme treatment makes

its composite exhibit higher tensile strength/modulus

(*twofold to matrix itself when 4.0 wt% content)

compared with the one suffered hazardous acid

hydrolysis. It probably due to the relatively higher

DP and crystallinity are preserved when treating with

specific cellulase. Data from the column of elongation

at break implies that PVA behaves more flexible than

gelatin and the addition of BCNC could make both of

the matrices more stiffness.

Novel applications of BCNC

In addition to its excellent mechanical properties, BCNC

which spread over the surface of glass beads (diameter

3 mm) could also be able to efficiently stabilize at the oil/

water interface when its surface charge density has been

modulated by various postsulfation/desulfation treat-

ments. SEM images of Fig. 23 revealed the surface

organization in detail. The colloidal-size particles

anchored at the oil–water interface formed the so-called

Pickering emulsions which not only present good

mechanical properties, but much fewer particles are

required to produce good stability, thereby leading to a

reduction in the use of hazardous surfactants (Binks 2002;

Aveyard et al. 2003). Kalashnikova et al. (2012) deduced

that the amphiphilic character reside in the crystallin

organization at the elementary brick level, which the

(200)b/(220)a hydrophobic edge plane appears respon-

sible for the wettability of the cellulose nanocrystals at the

oil/water interface, and therefore, its accessibility will

determine the ability to produce stable emulsions.

One of the most interesting characteristic of

cellulose nanofibers aqueous suspensions is their

ability of self-organization into stable chiral nematic

phases. Hirai et al. (2009) demonstrated that BCNC

suspensions at concentrations above 0.42 wt%

Fig. 22 TGA and DTG curves of a bacterial cellulose

nanocrystals obtained by sulfuric acid hydrolysis and b bacterial

cellulose nanocrystals obtained by enzyme hydrolysis (Rep-

rinted from George et al. 2011 with permission from Elsevier)

Table 2 Mechanical properties of BCNC/PVA and BCNC/

gelatin nanocomposites. (Reprinted from George et al. 2011

and 2012 with permission from Elsevier)

BCNC content in

composites

(wt %)

Tensile

strength

(MPa)c

Tensile

modulus

(GPa)c

Elongation

at break

(%)c

0a 62.5 ± 4.5 1.8 ± 0.3 154.9 ± 20

1a 94.7 ± 5.2 2.3 ± 0.2 148.7 ± 18

2a 106.2 ± 4.1 2.8 ± 0.1 142.0 ± 22

3a 117.2 ± 6.8 3.1 ± 0.2 138.8 ± 19

4a 128.5 ± 5.8 3.4 ± 0.1 132.1 ± 21

0b 83.7 ± 3.2 2.19 ± 0.05 33.7 ± 1.6

1b 88.7 ± 4.8 2.23 ± 0.06 33.1 ± 1.8

2b 95.1 ± 3.9 2.27 ± 0.07 29.8 ± 2.2

3b 103.1 ± 4.7 2.34 ± 0.06 27.5 ± 1.9

4b 108.6 ± 5.1 2.35 ± 0.07 23.4 ± 1.8

a The content of BCNC extracted from cellulase in PVA

matrixb The content of BCNC extracted from hydrochloric acid in

gelatin matrixc Mean ± SE (n = 10)

22 Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30

123

separated into the isotropic and chiral nematic phases

with a clear phase boundary (Fig. 24).

However, cotton cellulose nanocrystals (CCNC)

extracted from Whatman No. 1 filter paper powder

(98 % cotton fiber) form an anisotropic phase above a

critical concentration of around 4.5 wt% (Dong et al.

1998), and 5.3 wt% for wood (black spruce pulp)

cellulose (Beck-Candanedo et al. 2005). They also

revealed that the aspect ratio of cotton nanocrystals is

24, and that of wood nanocrystals is 29, while the data

is 44 and 73 regarding to the upper and lower layers of

the separated phase of BCNC solution respectively.

Besides, the surface charge density (ca. 0.05e nm2) of

BCNC, however, is approximately one-seventh that of

the corresponding value for wood cellulose. It is

proposed that the much lower critical concentration

for the BCNC suspension could be probably attributed

to a larger aspect ratio, a lower level of surface charge

density and the rectangular shape of the cross section

that pertained only in BC fibers.

Using this process to orient cellulose microcrystals,

Revol et al. (1997, 1998) created an important new

material with original optical properties. The wave-

length of reflected light can be controlled by adjusting

the ionic strength of the suspension. These new

materials have a high application potential like those

for security papers (Azizi Samir et al. 2005).

Other applications

Due to its excellent properties, BC has attracted much

attention as a new functional material applied in paper

production (Mormino and Bungay 2003). In general,

the presence of bacterial cellulose in papermaking

semi-products can lead to the improvement of their

strength properties (Surma-Slusarska et al. 2008b).

Surma-Slusarska et al. (2008a) studied the strength

properties of three different papermaking semi-pro-

ducts (i.e. unbeaten, bleached birch and pine sulphate

pulps) with bacterial cellulose. The breaking length

and tear index were improved by joining bacterial

cellulose with pulp fibers. In addition to its function as

a fillers aid, BC also can be used for the preparation of

Fig. 23 SEM images of polymerized styrene/water emulsions stabilized by a bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCN) and b cotton

cellulose nanocrystals (CCN) (Reprinted from Kalashnikova et al. 2012 with permission from American Chemical Society)

Fig. 24 Phase behavior of

BC nanocrystals dispersed

in deionized water as a

function of the total

concentration after 25 days

of standing (Reprinted from

Hirai et al. 2009 with

permission from American

Chemical Society)

Cellulose (2014) 21:1–30 23

123

specialized paper once modified. Basta and El-Saied

(2009) introduced phosphorous element in the BC

chain to prepare a flame-retardant paper by substitut-

ing glucose in cultivation medium with glucose

phosphate. The added phosphorylated bacterial cellu-

lose (PBC) not only enhanced the strength and

durability of pulp greatly when integrated into paper

but also controlled smoke generation and toxicity

when burning by minimizing the formation of levo-

glucosan by lowering the decomposition temperature

of cellulose. As a result, incorporating 5 % of the PBC

with wood pulp during paper sheet formation was

found to significantly improve fire resistance proper-

ties compared to paper sheets with native BC.

Wang’s group fabricated two novel sensors (a

humidity sensor (Hu et al. 2011c) and a formaldehyde

sensor (Hu et al. 2011a)) by coating quartz crystal

microbalance with BC membrane and polyethylene-

imine/BC membranes, respectively. Both of the two

sensors showed high sensitivity with good linearity

and exhibited a good reversibility, indicating that BC

membrane materials could act as a promising candi-

date for mass production of the high performance low-

cost sensors. And another application for BC was

proposed by Hu’s group (Hu et al. 2011d), who

selected BC to restore the vulnerable historic silk

fabrics due to its good mechanical property and

degradability, instead of the traditionally used syn-

thetic polymers. Because synthetic polymers have the

problems that they are difficult to be removed without

damaging to the historic silk textiles, for most of the

synthetic polymers can only be dissolved in either

organic solvent or degraded at extreme conditions.

Due to its primary structure which is similar to plant

cellulose, together with its ultrafine and highly pure

fiber network structure, BC shows potential applica-

tions in explosive industry as substituent of plant

cellulose according to Sun et al. (2010a), who first

prepared bacterial cellulose nitrate (NBC) from BC. It

is not so difficult to control in the nitration process

because of the relatively high chemical purity and is

expected to perform as an advanced energetic mate-

rial. In addition, the proton exchange membrane fuel

cells in which BC is used as membrane electrode

incorporated with platinum (Pt) nanoparticles was

firstly fabricated by Sun and his coworkers (Yang et al.

2009). With the distinctive interconnecting porous

structure, BC owns the ability to incorporate fine

divided Pt nanoparticles with mean diameter of

3–4 nm well impregnated into the BC fibrils. The

maximum output of the fuel cell on the basis of Pt/BC

is 12.1 mW/cm2 which is comparable to the value of

Pt/C electrolyte of 19.9 mW/cm2.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, bacterial cellulose has attracted

considerable interests in various application fields no

matter acting as a matrix or using in its modified state.

Compared to other synthetic or natural macromole-

cule, BC is distinctive in several aspects such as

unique nanostructure, high purity, high crystallinity,

large water holding capacity, higher Young’s modu-

lus, excellent biodegradability and biological affinity

etc. However, despite of all these advantages, the

relative high cost, and poor durability especially in

moist environment, could be a hindrance to its wide

application. So the research around fermentation for

enhancing productivity should be concentrated on

further. And BC probably prefers to using in its dried

state or being enclosed by other substance, except for

the disposable applications such as facial mask and

medical wound healing etc.

Acknowledgments We acknowledge the financial support

from State 863 Projects (2011AA050701), the Fundamental

Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.

30920130121001), and a Project Funded by the Priority

Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education

Institutions (PAPD, China).

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