Fabrication Of Bacterial Cellulose Based Composites Modified With Zein And Its Applications

Bacterial cellulose is a novel and environmentally-friendly biopolymeric materials, which is equipped with many excellent properties and thus widely used in the fields of food, pharmaceutical, paper, cosmetics and others. However, bacterial cellulose has shortcomings of the oneness of structure and functional groups, which limits its further application. In this article, we fabricated three kinds of zein/BC composite membrane materials, which were the modified bacterial cellulose by zein and develop its relative study of the possibility of application in food and medicine area. The specific research details as follows:(1) We fabricated a kind of zein/BC composite interlayer membrane material with high water barrier property, which were prepared by nano-structured interlayers of zein by electrospun, and the characterization of the membrane material including microstructure, physical and functional properties was performed by SEM, tensile mechanical properties, TG, penetration dynamics analysis, water resistant properties. The results indicated: in microstructure, zein/BC composite interlayer membrane material showed thinner among layers and stronger adhesion than pure BC; in physical properties, zein/BC composite interlayer membrane material showed little effect on tensile strength, elongation at break and thermal stability, while Young’s modulus remarkably improved from 9.2GPa to 15.5 GPa; in functional properties, its water resistant properties remarkably improved in high moisture condition, which is good to extend the shelf life in food package materials.(2) The high strong bioactive bacterial cellulose-zein composites was prepared by homo-complex through combining water soluble zein nanoparticles that can load active factors by anti-solvent technique with BC nanocellulose by homogeneity with high pressure microjet. The part aimed to research the influence on physical and functional properties of composite membrane material after zein nanoparticles and active factors added. The results showed: in certain limits, the addition of zein nanoparticles improved tensile mechanical properties of zein/BC composites; erythromycin as an active factor showed less influences on microstructure, physical and functional properties, while it added a new function of antimicrobial. At the same time, the zein/BC composites showed zero toxicity on L929 mouse fibroblast, which was beneficial for the growth and proliferation of cells, and provided a possibility of application in wound dressing area and etc.(3) The controlled high hydrophobic bacterial cellulose-zein composites was prepared by the principle of evaporation-induced self-assembly by zein. Hydrophobic zein/BC composites in different microstructures were prepared by altering the concentration of zein, and the relations among surface microstructure and physical and functional properties of hydrophobic zein/BC composites were discussed by studying its surface characteristics, mechanical characteristics and functional characteristics. The results showed hydrophobic zein/BC composites had better overall performance and favorable controlled surface hydrophobicity, which water contact angle of membrane surface reached 109 ° at concentration of o.5% zein. In the experiments of cell adhesion ability, Hydrophobic zein/BC composites had more appropriate for adhesion,proliferation and growth of cells, which is suitable for tissue engineering and etc.