TY - JOUR
T1 - Reduced tensile properties of bacterial cellulose membranes after an accelerated composite temperature/humidity cyclic assay
AU - Molina-Romero, Joan Manuel
AU - Arteaga-Ballesteros, Bárbara Estefanía
AU - Guevara-Morales, Andrea
AU - San Martín-Martínez, Eduardo
AU - Vieyra, Horacio
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes are an excellent ecopolymer product that has been proposed for many applications, including acoustic, biomedical, and fabrics. However, those uses require the membranes’ exposure to environmental conditions related to shelf storage, washing, or excess of humidity that are not usually evaluated when developing new materials. In this work, we investigated the effect of high and low temperature, and high humidity accelerated exposure on the physical and mechanical properties of BC membranes prepared from Kombucha fermentation. We prepared BC membranes following standard protocols and subjected them to a composite temperature/humidity accelerated cyclic assay. The mechanical and physical properties of the membranes were measured before and after the assay. We found that the ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus, and elongation at break significantly changed after the assay. We also observed a few morphology changes, but no changes in the DSC and IR determinations. Our results suggest that environmental tests should be performed in every biodegradable polymer according to their intended use to determine their applications fully.
AB - Bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes are an excellent ecopolymer product that has been proposed for many applications, including acoustic, biomedical, and fabrics. However, those uses require the membranes’ exposure to environmental conditions related to shelf storage, washing, or excess of humidity that are not usually evaluated when developing new materials. In this work, we investigated the effect of high and low temperature, and high humidity accelerated exposure on the physical and mechanical properties of BC membranes prepared from Kombucha fermentation. We prepared BC membranes following standard protocols and subjected them to a composite temperature/humidity accelerated cyclic assay. The mechanical and physical properties of the membranes were measured before and after the assay. We found that the ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus, and elongation at break significantly changed after the assay. We also observed a few morphology changes, but no changes in the DSC and IR determinations. Our results suggest that environmental tests should be performed in every biodegradable polymer according to their intended use to determine their applications fully.
KW - Bacterial cellulose
KW - Cellulose membranes
KW - Kombucha
KW - Material testing
KW - Mechanical properties
KW - Polymer membranes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098968193&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10924-020-02023-z
DO - 10.1007/s10924-020-02023-z
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85098968193
SN - 1566-2543
VL - 29
SP - 2349
EP - 2358
JO - Journal of Polymers and the Environment
JF - Journal of Polymers and the Environment
IS - 7
ER -