Reviewed by Lexie CornerJul 9 2025
Maksud Rahman, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Houston, has developed a method to convert bacterial cellulose into a multifunctional material that can replace plastic. Bacterial cellulose is a biodegradable material.
Rahman holds the bioplastic, made of bacterial cellulose, that could replace plastic. Image Credit: University of Houston
This material has the potential to be used in products such as disposable water bottles, packaging materials, and wound dressings.
“We envision these strong, multifunctional and eco-friendly bacterial cellulose sheets becoming ubiquitous, replacing plastics in various industries and helping mitigate environmental damage,” said Rahman, who is reporting the study.
We report a simple, single-step, and scalable bottom-up strategy to biosynthesize robust bacterial cellulose sheets with aligned nanofibrils and bacterial cellulose-based multi-functional hybrid nanosheets using shear forces from fluid flow in a rotational culture device. The resulting bacterial cellulose sheets display high tensile strength, flexibility, foldability, optical transparency, and long-term mechanical stability.
M.A.S.R. Saadi, Doctoral Student and Study First Author, Rice University
Shyam Bhakta, a postdoctoral researcher in biosciences at Rice University, supported the biological development of the project.
Concern about the environmental effects of petroleum-based, non-biodegradable materials has increased interest in sustainable alternatives like biomaterials. Bacterial cellulose is considered a strong candidate because it is abundant, biodegradable, and biocompatible.
To improve the material's properties, the team added boron nitride nanosheets to the bacterial feed. This produced bacterial cellulose-boron nitride hybrid nanosheets with enhanced mechanical strength (tensile strength up to ~553 MPa) and thermal performance (three times faster heat dissipation than untreated samples).
This scalable, single step bio-fabrication approach yielding aligned, strong and multifunctional bacterial cellulose sheets would pave the way towards applications in structural materials, thermal management, packaging, textiles, green electronics and energy storage.
Maksud Rahman, Study Reporter and Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
“We’re essentially guiding the bacteria to behave with purpose. Rather than moving randomly, we direct their motion, so they produce cellulose in an organized way. This controlled behavior, combined with our flexible biosynthesis method with various nanomaterials, enables us to achieve both structural alignment and multifunctional properties in the material at the same time,” added Rahman.
Rahman describes "moving" as "spinning." He developed a custom rotating culture system that uses a central shaft to generate directional fluid flow. This system grows cellulose-producing bacteria in a cylindrical, oxygen-permeable incubator. The flow causes the bacteria to migrate consistently in one direction.
“That significantly improves nanofibril alignment in bulk bacterial cellulose sheets. This work is an epitome of interdisciplinary science at the intersection of materials science, biology, and nanoengineering,” concluded Rahman.
Journal Reference:
Saadi, M., A., et al. (2025) Flow-induced 2D nanomaterials intercalated aligned bacterial cellulose. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60242-1.