PROPERTIES OF BACTERIAL CELLULOSE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PAPER

Bacterial cellulose is a promising source of biodegradable polymers having high purity. The time required to disperse bacterial cellulose wet membranes was studied, along with evaluation by infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis of the dispersed bacterial fiber and tests of the physical properties of the sheet. The results showed that bacterial cellulose wet membrane can be dispersed well, forming fibers when the dispersing time was 3 minutes at a suitable concentration. FT-IR results showed that the composition of bacterial fiber is similar to that of bleached softwood fibers. Thus, the morphology, thermal performance, and the length of bacterial fibers are significantly different. The sheets’ physical properties show that with the increasing dosage of bacterial fibers (relative to softwood fiber), the properties of tensile index, tear index, burst index, and stiffness greatly improve, while the porosity and the relative water absorption decrease.