Biosynthesis of bacterial cellulose/multi-walled carbon nanotubes in agitated culture

The morphology of bacterial cellulose (BC) is quite different in the static and agitated culture. In this study, the snow-like cellulose assemblies are synthesized in the agitated culture and the fibrous and rice-like cellulose assemblies are produced in the presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) in agitated culture. The microstructure of BC synthesized in agitated culture are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The analysis results reveal that the crystallinity index, crystallite size and cellulose Iα content for cellulose synthesized in agitated culture are lower than those for cellulose synthesized in static culture. The agitating stress influences the aggregation and crystallization of sub-elementary fibrils, further changes the intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bond patterns. The stress makes greater effect on BC synthesized in the absence of MWNTs than in the presence of MWNTs.