Review on the strategies for enhancing mechanical properties of bacterial cellulose

• Published in: Journal of materials science 2023-10, Vol.58 (39), p.15265-15293
• Main Authors: Wang, Yun-Ya, Zhao, Xue-Qing, Li, Dong-Mei, Wu, Ya-Mei, Wahid, Fazli, Xie, Yan-Yan, Zhong, Cheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adhesion; Analysis; Biocompatibility; Biopolymers; blood; Blood vessels; bones; Cellulose; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Dehydration; Earphones; electronic equipment; Materials Science; Mechanical properties; microphones; Microporosity; Polymer Sciences; Review; Self-assembly; Solid Mechanics; Substrates; Tensile strength; Thermal stability; Tissue engineering; vibration
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-023-08803-x

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a pure biopolymer with abundant sources. BC has been used in wound dressings, artificial blood vessels, bone tissue engineering, and other applications because of its microporosity, superior water retention, thermal stability, and biocompatibility. The tensile strength of pure BC in wet state is weak, and the water holding capacity is above 90%, which limits its application. However, the mechanical properties of dehydrated BC are excellent at the expense of toughness, which is not enough to meet the demand of high additional-value materials, such as high strength flexible electronic device substrate, wearable electronic devices, vibration film for microphone and earphone, and others. Therefore, it is of great importance to systematically investigate the strategies to improve the mechanical properties of BC. Herein, this paper demonstrates the intrinsic factors affecting the mechanical properties of BC, along with the strategies to enhance the mechanical properties. Compared with the well-known adhesion reinforcement and chemical modification, six strategies to enhance the mechanical properties were discussed thoroughly in this paper. In addition, layer-by-layer self-assembly and orderly arrangement of fibrils are proposed in this paper to improve the mechanical properties of BC, which have not been described in detail in previous literature. Graphical abstract