Houston Daily

In an effort to address the environmental challenges posed by plastic waste, Maksud Rahman, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Houston, has developed a potential alternative using bacterial cellulose. This biodegradable material could be used in products such as disposable water bottles, packaging materials, and wound dressings.

Rahman expressed his vision for these "strong, multifunctional and eco-friendly bacterial cellulose sheets becoming ubiquitous, replacing plastics in various industries and helping mitigate environmental damage." His research is published in Nature Communications.

M.A.S.R. Saadi, a doctoral student at Rice University and first author of the study, explained their method: "We report a simple, single-step and scalable bottom-up strategy to biosynthesize robust bacterial cellulose sheets with aligned nanofibrils and bacterial cellulose-based multi-functional hybrid nanosheets using shear forces from fluid flow in a rotational culture device." Shyam Bhakta, a postdoctoral fellow in Biosciences at Rice University, supported the biological implementation.

To enhance the properties of bacterial cellulose, Rahman's team incorporated boron nitride nanosheets into the process. This resulted in hybrid nanosheets with improved mechanical strength (tensile strength up to ~553 MPa) and thermal properties (three times faster heat dissipation rate).

Rahman emphasized that their approach "would pave the way towards applications in structural materials, thermal management, packaging, textiles, green electronics and energy storage."

The research involves guiding bacteria to produce cellulose with organized motion within a custom-designed rotation culture device. This setup allows for consistent directional travel of bacteria which improves nanofibril alignment. Rahman noted that this work represents "interdisciplinary science at the intersection of materials science, biology and nanoengineering."