Fabrication of poly lactic acid incorporated bacterial cellulose adhered flax fabric biocomposites

Abstract Bacterial cellulose (BC) can be used as an efficient reinforcement material in biopolymers. In this study, the surface of flax fabric was used as a support material to deposit BC on its surface produced by Gluconacetobacter liquefaciens (MTCC 3135) through 1 week fermentation process. After the growth of BC on flax fabric, the surface of flax fabric has been modified to get BC modified flax fabric. Production of BC on flax fabric after fermentation was confirmed by the increase in weight of dried flax fabric and the total quantity of BC deposited was measured to be 9.45 ± 0.46%. The water uptake of BC modified flax fabric decreased from 59.19 ± 4.60% to 46.35 ± 0.07% indicating hydrophobic nature of flax fabric after deposition of BC on it. Green biocomposites was successfully prepared by incorporating Cereplast PLA into the neat and BC modified flax fabric. FT-IR results indicated that the PLA was successfully incorporated into both unmodified and BC modified flax fabric as the ester group present in PLA peak was observed at 1760 cm−1. Mechanical properties, water uptake behavior, and the optical micrograph of both unmodified and BC modified flax fabric and their composites were carried out. A significant increase in the Young's modulus and decrease in water uptake were observed in case of BC modified flax fabric biocomposites contributing to its stiffness. BC modified flax fabric based biocomposites showed zone of inhibition indicating antimicrobial nature of the biocomposites.