Bacterial Cellulose and Its Use in Renewable Composites

Bacterial cellulose has been used as a material in combination with many others to develop composites. It has been used with materials such as xmsaturated polyester [185], the conducting polymer polyaniline [158-162, 186], as well as various acrylic and phenolic resins [178, 187-189]. It has also been used with several biodegradable materials such as cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) [146,190], PLA [167,174,191,192], PHB [193-195], PVA [196,197], and thermoplastic starch [198,199], to produce completely biodegradable composites. Though renewable and biodegradable composites are the focus of this review, techniques and resulting composites from non-renewable sources are also mentioned. 

The ionic liquids described here are reported to be extremely fast and efficient media with which to dissolve bacterial cellulose. In addition, due to the large number of potential combination of anions and cation, it is likely that increasing numbers of ionic liquids that can dissolve this high molecular weight cellulose will be found. For example, it has been suggested that ionic liquids with acetate counter ions will be extremely effective for this task. [141]. The ability to dissolve and recover bacterial cellulose, as well as the environmental benefits of using renewable and recyclable solvents, creates further possibilities to chemically modify this molecule to alter its properties in order to use bacterial cellulose to create composites. 

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