Influence of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles on Properties of Bacterial Nanocellulose Membrane Made of Pineapple Peel Waste.

Indonesia is the larger pineapple producer country in the world, so they have the potential to generate biomass waste from the peel. Pineapple peel content is a carbon source in the fermentation process for producing bacterial cellulose. Some nanomaterials such as TiO2 and Graphene oxide has been increased the adsorption of ion metal and water purification in nanocomposite membranes. CuO nanomaterial has functioned as an antibacterial material in biomedical applications. So, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of adding CuO nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) to the characteristic of bacterial nanocellulose-based membranes made of pineapple peel waste. The methods include synthesizing bacterial cellulose from pineapple peels and producing bacterial nanocellulose in a high-speed blender and a nano-homogenizer. Raw materials such as BC, CTAB, and CuO-NPs (concentrations of 1.0% and 2.0%) were mixed and homogenized using an ultrasonic homogenizer, then filtered and freeze-dried at -62oC for two days to obtain a membrane. Using SEM, XRD, FTIR, surface roughness, and tensile tester we can see the addition of CuO-NPs can affect the characteristic of BC/CuO nanocomposite. SEM Results show that the surface morphology containing a lower concentration of CuO-NPs has better homogeneity dispersion. From XRD analysis, by addition, CuO-NPs can be appearing new peaks at 35.47o and 38.68o, but it reduces the degree of crystallinity, crystallinity index, and Crystalline size of the membrane but increases its surface roughness. Adding CuO-NPs to the BC structure causes a shift and change of transmittance value that indicate the interaction of CuO to BC fibril. The highest tensile strength of nanocomposite membrane is 69.643 MPa, obtained from a lower concentration of CuO-NPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]