Brief Overview of Developments in BC-Based Biosynthesized Nano-Fabrics Production: Challenges and Future Perspectives

Fashion trends are rapidly changing and consumers’ demand for affordable apparel is rising. Traditional textiles production process involves several stages and growing production has raised various environmental concerns, including the enormous amounts of harmful processing wastes produced, landfill consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, air/water pollution and so on [1-5]. Hence eco-friendly biomaterials [6-8] and green production techniques are being actively sought after [9-12]. Nature has the best sustainability model as it creates no harmful wastes and natural biomaterials like polysaccharides, cellulose, chitosan etc. [13-16], are sustainable resources which have biocompatible, biodegradable, and hazard-free features. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a promising biodegradable natural polymer, possessing high modulus and strength [17,18], secreted by Acetobacterxylinum through a hierarchical cell-directed self-assembly process [19]. BC is harmless to humans and the environment and free of impurities, such as lignin and hemicellulose. Its unique physical characteristics and cultivation properties have demonstrated a great potential to achieve zero-waste design for apparels (20). BC based fabrics are highly porous, biocompatible, with exceptional environmental biodegradability and can be easily customized for size, shape, and thickness [21-23].

Recent research works have reported innovative ways to produce BC-based fabrics by using natural renewable resources and techniques, instead of using conventional manufacturing methods. Hence apparel production can be redefined for cost effectiveness, labor friendliness, low environmental impact, and biodegradability [12]. Shape and dimensions of cultivation containers are the factors which limit the customized growth of BC at air-liquid interface. Genetically modified bacteria have been successfully grown on three dimensional templates to produce seamless fabrics. Such biological fabrication technique will eradicate a considerable amount of material wastage at various production stages and enhance the overall process efficiency [24]. Cultivation of bacterial cellulose in form of sheets has also been reported, in order to make clothing through traditional cut-and-sewn method. Production of self-grown seamless 3D BC fabrics was also realized, to prepare tailor-shaped clothing based on zero-waste design [20]. Other studies analyzed the bleaching and dyeing of BC with help of direct and reactive dyes, by using in-situ and ex-situ approaches [25,26]. However, BC alone lacks the durability required for everyday use, considering sustainable apparel applications [27-30]. Hybrid fabrics can be produced by incorporating other materials of interest (natural fibers, polymers, nano-fillers etc.) during BC fermentation. Numerous hydroxyl groups present on the surfaces of hydrophilic substrates and BC result into strong interaction (H-bonding) between the components combined [31-34]. Several recent studies report the localized growth of BC nanofibers on electrospun membrane support, to form a nano-fabric structure [35-39]. Seamless tubular hybrid fabrics were prepared by using controlled bioreactors which consisted of rectangular containers, equipped with micro-fluidics system to inject additional nutrients as needed. Cellulose acetate (CA) electrospun membrane was used as support material for BC growth. A conveyer-roller arrangement used to expose pristine membrane on air-liquid interface enabled the formation of seamless tubular fabrication. Another recent study has reported the formation of functional fabrics to be used for biomedical application [37]. The characterization results for water holding, vertical wicking, contact angle and mechanical analyses suggested the use of biologically prepared hybrid fabrics for wound dressing application. Future research works can help to investigate the possibility of incorporating biodegradable hydrophobic medicine-loaded nanofibrous membranes (e.g. polylactic acid/ poly glycolic acid) to achieve specific clinical objectives. With aforementioned self-synthesizing and tailor-shaped characteristics, the biosynthesized BC-based fabrics have great potential to be new sustainable textile materials for the apparel industry. However, the cost and pace of production; handling, laundering and aesthetics related issue still remain a challenge to be addressed.

None.

No conflict of interest.

1. Gam HJ, Banning J (2011) Addressing sustainable apparel design challenges with problem-based learning. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 29(3): 202-215.
2. Lapolla K, Sanders E (2015) Using Cocreation to Engage Everyday Creativity in Reusing and Repairing Apparel.
3. Correia VM, Stephenson T, Judd SJ (1994) Characterization of textile wastewaters ‐ a review. Environmental Technology 15(10): 917-929.
4. Claudio L (2007) Waste couture: environmental impact of the clothing industry. Environ Health Perspect 115(9): A449-A454.
5. Slater K (2003) The health of our planet. In: Slater K (edt) Environmental Impact of Textiles: Woodhead Publishing, UK, p. 9-16.
6. Zhan Y (2011) Green Design Based on the Concept of Ecological Holism. Applied Mechanics and Materials. 20(44-47): 1598-1602.
7. Mo XT, Wang PC (2013) Materials Used in Sustainable Design. Advanced Materials Research 753: 1420-1422.
8. Reinders A, Diehl JC, Brezet JC. The Power of Design: Product-Innovation in Sustainable Energy Technologies2012.
9. Lee S, Du Preez W, Thornton-Jones N (2005) Fashioning the future: Tomorrow's wardrobe, Thames and Hudson, London.
10. Hemmings J (2008) Grown fashion: Animal, Vegetable or Plastic? Textile: Cloth and Culture 6(3): 262-273.
11. Siró I, Plackett D (2010) Microfibrillated cellulose and new nanocomposite materials: a review. Cellulose 17(3): 459-494.
12. Ng FM, Wang PW (2016) Natural self-grown fashion from bacterial cellulose: a paradigm shift design approach in fashion creation. The Design Journal 19(6): 837-855.
13. Klemm D, Heublein B, Fink HP, Bohn A (2005) Cellulose: fascinating biopolymer and sustainable raw material. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 44(22): 3358-3393.
14. Biermann U, Friedt, W, Lang, S, Lühs, W., Machmüller, et al. (2000) New Syntheses with Oils and Fats as Renewable Raw Materials for the Chemical Industry. Biorefineries‐Industrial Processes and Products. 39: Angewandte Chemie International Edition pp. 2206-2224.
15. Raquez JM, Deléglise M, Lacrampe MF, Krawczak P (2010) Thermosetting (bio)materials derived from renewable resources: A critical review. Progress in Polymer Science 35(4): 487-509.
16. Dumitriu S (2008) Polysaccharides: Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility (2^nd edn), CRC Press, USA. P. 1224.
17. Qiu K, Netravali AN (2012) Fabrication and characterization of biodegradable composites based on microfibrillated cellulose and polyvinyl alcohol. Composites Science and Technology 72(13): 1588-1594.
18. Lee KY, Bismarck A (2014) Advanced Bacterial Cellulose Composites. Handbook of Green Materials: World Scientific: 147-64.
19. Qiu K, Netravali AN (2014) A Review of Fabrication and Applications of Bacterial Cellulose Based Nanocomposites. Polymer Reviews 54(4): 598-626.
20. Chan CK, Shin J, Kinor Jiang SX (2018) Development of tailor-shaped bacterial cellulose textile cultivation techniques for zero-waste design. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 36(1): 33-44.
21. Wan YZ, Hong L, Jia SR, Huang Y, Zhu Y, et al. (2006) Synthesis and characterization of hydroxyapatite–bacterial cellulose nanocomposites. Composites Science and Technology 66(11): 1825-1832.
22. Qiu K (2012) Biobased and Biodegradable Polymer Nanocomposites Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell University, USA.
23. Chawla PR, Bajaj IB, Survase SA, Singhal RS (2009) Microbial Cellulose: Fermentative Production and Applications 47(2): 107-124.
24. Madlener A (2013) Xylinum Cones by Hülsen and Schwabe.
25. Shim E, Kim HR (2018) Coloration of bacterial cellulose using in situ and ex situ methods. Textile Research Journal 89(7): 1297-1310.
26. Han J, Shim E, Kim HR (2018) Effects of cultivation, washing, and bleaching conditions on bacterial cellulose fabric production. Textile Research Journal 89(6): 1094-1104.
27. Lee YA, Ghalachyan A, Xiang C, Ramasubramanian G, Li R, et al. Exploring optimal solutions for sustainable product development using renewable bacteria cellulose fiber and biopolymer composites.
28. Esa F, Tasirin S, Abd Rahman N (2014) Overview of bacterial cellulose production and application. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 2: 113-119.
29. Qiu K, Netravali AN (2012) Bacterial cellulose-based membrane-like biodegradable composites using cross-linked and noncross-linked polyvinyl alcohol. Journal of Materials Science 47(16): 6066–6075.
30. Netravali AN (2016) Inventor Bacterial Cellulose Based ‘Green’ Composites. patent US Patent No. 9,499,686 B2.
31. Pommet M, Juntaro J, Heng JY, Mantalaris A, Lee AF, et al. (2008) Surface modification of natural fibers using bacteria: depositing bacterial cellulose onto natural fibers to create hierarchical fiber reinforced nanocomposites. Biomacromolecules 9(6): 1643-1651.
32. Grande JC, Torres FG, Gomez CM, Troncoso OP, Canet-Ferrer J, et al. (2009) Development of self-assembled bacterial cellulose-starch nanocomposites Materials Science and Engineering: C 29(4): 1098-1104.
33. Lee KY, Bharadia P, Blaker JJ, Bismarck A (2012) Short sisal fibre reinforced bacterial cellulose polylactide nanocomposites using hairy sisal fibres as reinforcement. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing 43(11): 2065-2074.
34. Qiu K, Netravali A. In Situ Produced Bacterial Cellulose Nanofiber-Based Hybrids for Nanocomposites. Fibers. 2017;5(3):31.
35. Naeem MA, Lv P, Zhou H, Naveed T, Wei Q (2018) A Novel in Situ Self-Assembling Fabrication Method for Bacterial Cellulose-Electrospun Nanofiber Hybrid Structures. Polymers (Basel) 10(7): E712.
36. Xiang C, Acevedo NC (2017) In situ self-assembled nanocomposites from bacterial cellulose reinforced with eletrospun poly (lactic acid)/lipids nanofibers. Polymers 9(5): 179.
37. Naeem MA, Siddiqui Q, Leroy A, Khan MR, Wei Q (2019) The production and characterization of microbial cellulose-electrospun membrane hybrid nano-fabrics. Journal of Industrial Textiles: 1-12.
38. Naeem MA, Alfred M, Saba H, Siddiqui Q, Naveed T, et al. (2019) A preliminary study on the preparation of seamless tubular bacterial cellulose-electrospun nanofibers-based nanocomposite fabrics. Journal of Composite Materials 53(26-27): 3715-3724.
39. Naeem MA, Alfred M, Lv P, Zhou H, Wei Q (2018) Three-dimensional bacterial cellulose-electrospun membrane hybrid structures fabricated through in-situ self-assembly. Cellulose 25(12): 6823-6830.