Morphological and crystallinity properties of bacterial nanocellulose foam reinforced by copper oxide nanoparticles

Abstract. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a material with advantages such as high purity, mechanical strength, crystallinity, and unique physical properties while being biodegradable. However, in order to improve specific characteristics, cellulose should be combined with other materials. One type of metal that can be applied as an additive in bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) networks is copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs). Copper has great potential for application as a cellulose tissue filler. Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) is required to assist in the distribution and bonding of BC. This research provided the use of BC, which is produced from pineapple peel. Afterward, the BC was homogenized with High-pressure homogenization to produce BNC, mixed with varied CuO-NPs (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2%). As a result, a BNC/CuO-NPs nanocomposite is synthesized. CTAB can successfully homogenize the distribution of CuO-NPs, according to morphological investigations. The addition of CTAB and CuO-NPs toward the crystallinity increased the intensity at diffraction angles of 21.3, 35.5, and 38.6, thus according to XRD observations.