Structure and Properties of Bacterial Cellulose Produced Using a Trickling Bed Reactor

Abstract

Structure and properties of bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by trickling fermentation were studied. The following indexes, such as extrinsic shapes, microstructure, chemical structure, purity, water holding capacity, porosity, and thermogravimetric characteristics, are recommended for assessing the structure and properties of bacterial cellulose. With the comparison to bacterial cellulose produced by static fermentation and shaking fermentation, the results showed that for different BC cultivation methods, the extrinsic shapes, synthetic mode, and microstructure were different. The basic consistency of the infrared spectrogram from three kinds of bacterial cellulose reflected that the chemical structures were very similar. But the -OH associating degree of trickling fermentation BC was higher, and the polymerization degree, purity, water holding capacity, porosity, and thermal stability of trickling fermentation BC were also higher than those of static fermentation BC and shaking fermentation BC. But the crystallinity and crystal grain size of trickling fermentation BC were less than those of static fermentation BC and greater than those of shaking fermentation BC and plant fiber. These above structure and properties of trickling fermentation BC could reference bacterial cellulose's application in food and material field.