Abstract
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an appealing class of nanoscale biopolymers with immense potential for sustainable development across food, energy, and health sectors. However, facile, green approaches to convert BC into functional, value-added materials remain limited. Here, novel BC nanocomposites are developed by incorporating highly functional amorphous cellulose chains, called “hairs”. It is shown how in-situ modifications via integrating hairy nanocrystalline cellulose (HNCC) into cellulose-synthesizing Komagataeibacter medellinensis media enable all-cellulose nanocomposites with diverse functional groups. As a result, sterically stabilized HNCC (SNCC) with neutral aldehyde, electrosterically stabilized HNCC (ENCC) with carboxyl and bifunctional HNCC (BNCC) with both aldehyde-carboxyl groups yield hairy BC/SNCC (aldehyde ∼ 0.9 mmol g−1), BC/ENCC (carboxyl ∼ 1.5 mmol g-1) and BC/BNCC (aldehyde ∼ 0.8 mmol g-1 and carboxyl ∼ 1.1 mmol g-1) nanocomposites, respectively. These nanocomposites, characterized by finely tuned chemistry and architecture, offer versatile sustainable platforms. Anionic BC/ENCC and BC/BNCC are loaded with the antibacterial ɛ-poly-L-lysine (PLL) to explore drug adsorption isotherms, release kinetics, and underlying mechanisms. The antibacterial efficacy of hairy nanocomposites is quantified, followed by a biocompatibility assessment with human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSC). This work lays the foundation for BC conversion to highly functional advanced nanocomposites for a wide range of applications.
Published Version
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