Abstract
Biocomposite of bacterial cellulose-alginate has been developed for use as food packaging material. This study aims to understand the physical and mechanical properties of the biocomposite produced from static fermentation of Gluconacetobacter xylinus InaCC B404 in media supplemented with alginate. The strain was grown in a medium containing alginate at a concentration of 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2% w/v at 30oC for 7 days. The SEM images showed that bacterial cellulose produced in a medium supplemented with alginate had a denser structure of fibril network and a smaller pore size than the control one. The structure change was due to interactions through hydrogen bonds between bacterial cellulose and alginate proven by FTIR spectra, resulting in a decrease in crystallinity and crystallite size of bacterial cellulose. It led to the decrease in tensile and tear strength of the resulting biocomposite. Alginate also causes biocomposite to have higher water vapour permeability values.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, there has been a rising interest in research on composite materials from natural polymeric materials, especially those aimed at environmentally friendly food packaging materials
Bacterial cellulose is an exopolysaccharide produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinus bacteria
This research is aimed to study the physical and mechanical properties of biocomposites resulting from the fermentation of G. xylinus bacteria in media added with alginate and its potential as a packaging material for food products
Summary
Over the past few decades, there has been a rising interest in research on composite materials from natural polymeric materials, especially those aimed at environmentally friendly food packaging materials. Natural polymers such as polysaccharides are widely explored as biocomposite materials because of their abundant availability, low cost, and mostly soluble in water which makes them easy to apply (Debeaufort et al, 1998; Cazon et al, 2017). Bacterial cellulose is chemically identical to plant cellulose, with several advantages including high purity and naturally occurring in the form of nano-sized fibres. This causes bacterial cellulose does not require purification stages or other treatments to obtain nano-sized fibres (Ruka et al, 2012). Coatings and films produced from cellulose derivatives are reported to have strong, transparent, odourless, tasteless, resistant to fats and oils, highly biodegradable, efficient barrier to O2, CO2, and aroma, but moderate resistance to moisture (Villalobos et al, 2005; Vargas et al, 2008)
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