Characteristics of bacterial nanocellulose composite and its application as self-cooling material

Abstract

Self-cooling material usually uses synthetic or employ harmfull chemicals. Nanocellulose from bacterial culture composited with CaCO3 and ZnO is proposed to overcome the limitation. Bacterial nanocellulose was prepared via kombucha fermentation. Obtained bacterial nanocellulose was bleached using H2O2 to remove impurities. The bleached bacterial nanocellulose exhibited a nanofiber shape and a cellulose I crystalline structure with a crystallinity of 44.3 %. The fiber diameter was approximately 92.51 ± 21.46 nm. Bleached bacterial nanocellulose had a higher nanocellulose content than unbleached bacterial nanocellulose. The bleached bacterial cellulose was composited with CaCO3 and ZnO particles to form randomly distributed particles. The composite decreases sample temperature as high as 3.8 °C and 3.7 °C for CaCO3 and ZnO composites, respectively.

Keywords

• Kombucha
• Cellulose nanofiber
• Bacterial nanocellulose
• Self-cooling
• ZnO
• CaCO3