REVIEW - BACTERIAL CELLULOSE: AN ECOFRIENDLY BIOTEXTILE

The bacterial cellulose (BC) has aroused great industrial interest due to its attractive properties if compared with vegetable cellulose. The BC is a biomaterial produced by natural processes, is degradable and promotes low toxicity to the environment; additionally, it is able to play the role of a textile surface. For the development of this type of material for the textile industry, biotechnology has been conducting research in the area of biotextiles and biocomposites aimed to combine the study of textiles and biological experiments to obtain products with technological applications. Accordingly, this review discusses the knowledge obtained about BC over the years, especially in the textile area, with a focus on the advancement of research in order to enable the production of BC on large scale.