Abstract
Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) is a technique for evaluating surface properties. The current work emphasizes the use of IGC to evaluate the surface physicochemical changes during different bacterial cellulose (BC) processing methods as well as upon polyaniline (PANi) incorporation. The processing methods (oven-drying, freeze-drying, and regeneration) caused changes in the BC surface group distribution, where upon freeze-drying and regeneration, a more acidic behavior is obtained, compared to oven-drying (Kb/Ka decreased up to 24%). Through freeze-drying, the structural pore preservation increases (54%) the BC porosity, whereas through regeneration, the porosity decreases (23%), compared to BC oven-drying. Regarding the nanocomposites, with PANi incorporation, the overall properties evaluated by IGC were significantly changed. The $$\gamma_{\text{s}}^{\text{total}}$$ increases up to 150%, indicating a more reactive surface in the nanocomposites. Also, is observed a sevenfold increase in the Kb/Ka and a less porous surface (up to 85%). Hence, the current work highlights the use of IGC as a viable technique to evaluate the physicochemical changes upon different BC modifications.
Highlights
The synthesis of new nanocomposites, leading to the exploration of new behaviors and functionalities, is of great importance
Even though no significant differences were observed in the cds values, it was observed different in the n-octane heterogeneity profiles for the different bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes, indicating that different processing methods influence the group distribution at the surface
As Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) evaluates the materials at a surface level, the differences between the BC membranes indicates that the different BC processing methods influenced the chain structural organization on the BC surface and their degrees of freedom
Summary
The synthesis of new nanocomposites, leading to the exploration of new behaviors and functionalities, is of great importance. An array of advancements into functionalizing bacterial cellulose (BC) is presented in the literature, with the intent to create new BC nanocomposites (Kargarzadeh et al 2017; Missoum et al 2013; Moon et al 2011). These new materials need to be extensively characterized in order make them suitable for the new application as new materials. Making use of a set of conventional analysis techniques, Alonso et al (2017) observed that the BC membrane and polymerization method affected the final properties of the new BC-reinforced material. The same authors observed that the use of the inverse gas chromatography (IGC) allowed to infer similar conclusions
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