Summary
Bacterial cellulose is exceptionally pure and highly crystalline, but the same hydrogen bonding and high molecular weight that give it those qualities make it impossible to melt and very hard to dissolve, so processing it usually means resorting to aggressive and toxic solvents. This study demonstrates a greener route to electrospun bacterial cellulose fibres by screening ionic liquids as solvents - 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate alongside two imidazolium alternatives - and identifying conditions under which the material can be spun successfully. The approach removes the most objectionable chemistry from the process and opens bacterial cellulose to fibre applications that its solubility had previously ruled out.
Authors & Affiliations
Linari Electrospinning Systems
Electrospinning bench apparatus with rotating collector
The solutions were spun on an electrospinning bench apparatus (Linari Engineering S.r.l., Pisa, Italy) equipped with a rotating collector and a static coagulation bath - a configuration combining the Easy Drum rotary unit with the HVG-CONT-LCD high voltage control unit of the Starter Kit.