The effect of different drying temperature on crystallinity and morphology structure of bacterial cellulose

Coconut waste water is very abundant in Indonesia, because Indonesia is one of the world's largest coconut producers, with a production of 18 million tons per year. Bacterial cellulose (BC) can be produced using coconut water using Acetobacter bacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of drying temperature on the crystallinity and morphological structure of BC. A. xylinum was grown on coconut water culture medium with addition of sugar (5%), incubation period 7 days at pH 5. The BC were dried using two drying method i.e. oven at 50 degrees C and 100 degrees C, and room temperature drying without using oven. The drying was conducted until it achieved 2-6% moisture content. The three different temperatures showed different colour of physical appearance of BC, and the room temperature of dried BC showed the best result of colour. It also gave the different properties of BC based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) method for evaluating its surface morphology and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) method for its crystallinity. Therefore, the present work proposed the most suitable drying method can be performed based on the end products desired.