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 I α 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.