Bio-based nanomaterials–versatile materials for industrial and biomedical applications

Abstract

In this work, unmodified bacterial cellulose pellicles, biosynthesized by the bacterium Komagataeibacter rhaeticus, bleached birch Kraft pulp (Södra Cell AB, Sweden) and birch bark supplied by the plywood industry (JSC Latvijas Finieris, Latvia), were used to obtain the nanoparticles. The results showed that cellulose nanoparticles fabricated by the ammonium persulfate oxidation method, an alternative method developed at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, are promising constituents for producing nanopaper. Cellulose and birch bark nanofillers show the potential to improve the physical-mechanical and biological properties of chitosan-matrix films.