Comparative Study and Characterization of Water-treated Bacterial Cellulose produced by Solid or Liquid inoculum of Komagateibacter sucrofermentans

Abstract Structural and physicochemical properties of the water-treated bacterial cellulose (BC) which was produced by Komagateibacter sucrofermentans strain DSM 15973 T either from a solid inoculum of the bacterial preculture in HS medium (BCS 7 ) or liquid one (BCL 7 ) after 7 days were investigated in this work. BCL 7 was generally proved to be superior to BCS 7 regarding BC yield and water holding capacity (WHC). BCL 1-7 and BCS 7 were analyzed by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction), Nitrogen Adsorption-Desorption Isotherms, TG (thermogravimetric) and DTG (differential thermogravimetric) analysis, in order to investigate the structural modifications and physicomechanical properties of the water-treated BC pellicles. Both BC 7 exhibited a high moisture content (98.8%) and the water release content for BCL 7 of 1000 mL retained ~12 g of water after 100 h. BCL 7 exhibited higher wet mass, specific surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution compared to BCS 7 . BCL showed an IV(a) isotherm and the crystallinity index of both BC 7 were similar (about 55%). BC thermograms followed the same trend and BCS 7 reveals a 35% residue up to 780 o C. Overall, the resulted structural and physicomechanical differences between BCL and BCS pellicles appears that each could be used for different application.