Preparation and Characterization of a Bacterial Cellulose/Chitosan Composite for Potential Biomedical Application

Bacterial cellulose (BC)/chitosan (Ch) composite has been successfully prepared by immersing wet BC pellicle in chitosan solution followed by freeze-drying process. The morphology of BC/Ch composite was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and compared with pristine BC. SEM images show that chitosan molecules can penetrate into BC forming three-dimensional multilayer structure scaffold. The scaffold has very well interconnected porous network structure and large aspect surface. The composite was also characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and tensile test. By incorporation of chitosan into BC, crystallinity tends to decrease from 82% to 75%. According to TGA result, the thermal stability of BC in the composite has been improved by incorporating chitosan. At the same time, the BC/Ch composite displays 530% of improvement in tensile strength, 240% of decrease in elongation at break, and 4000% of increase in Young's modulus compared with pure chitosan. The biocompatibility of composite was preliminarily evaluated by cell adhesion studies. The tests were carried out using 3T3 fibroblast cells. The cells incubated with BC/Ch scaffolds for 48 h were capable of forming cell adhesion and proliferation. It showed much better biocompatibility than pure BC. So, the prepared BC/Ch scaffolds are bioactive and may be suitable for cell adhesion/attachment suggesting that these scaffolds can be used for wound dressing or tissue-engineering scaffolds. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121: 1488-1494, 2011