Preparation of bacterial cellulose sheets with electrical and magnetic properties

Abstract

Polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization using ammoniumpersulfate as an oxidizing agent and in the presence of bacterial cellulose (BC) during the polymerization to obtain BC sheets with electrical properties. Magnetite particles (Fe₃O₄) were synthesize by co-precipitation method, using ammonia gas as precipitating agent and again in the presence of BC to obtain BC sheets with magnetic properties. The BC sheets were produced from Acetobacter xylinum TISTR 975. The chemical and physical characterization of resultant sheets were carried out using SEM, FT-IR, TG-DTA, XRD, two point probe electrometer, and VSM. SEM micrographs revealed that PANI covered the surfaces of the BC surface. Characteristic peaks of both the BC and PANI were observed in the FT-IR spectra of the BC sheets containing PANI. The TG-DTA curves showed the thermal stability of the BC sheets with PANI was increased as compared to that of the pure BC sheet. A maximum electrical conductivity of 6.17 s / cm was observed for the BC sheet with PANI polymerized by using an aniline monomer content of 30% wt. Saturated magnetization of BC containing Fe₃O₄ (in the absence of PANI) increased from 3.14 to 18.38 emug⁻¹ with increasing the initial concentration of iron precursors from 0.05 to 0.20 M. Moreover, BC containing Fe₃O₄ both with and without the incorporating of PANI showed super-paramagnetic behavior with coersivity less than 100 Oe. This work introduced a facile method for the preparation of BC sheets with electrical and magnetic properties.