In our study, the surface of bacterial cellulose was successively modified by copper and zinc oxide nanoparticles using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering and radio frequency (RF) reactive sputter coating techniques. The target materials, copper and zinc, were 99.99% pure and used in the presence of argon (Ar) gas, while zinc nanoparticles were sputtered in the presence of oxygen gas to make zinc oxide nanoparticles. The as-prepared bacterial cellulose/copper/zinc oxide nanocomposite has good ultraviolet resistance, anti-static and antibacterial characteristics. The surface morphology and chemical composition of the nanocomposite were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic (EDS) techniques. The prepared bacterial cellulose/copper/zinc oxide nanocomposite illustrates excellent ultraviolet resistance (T.UVA%; 0.16 ± 0.02, T.UVB%; 0.07 ± 0.01, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF); 1850.33 ± 2.12), antistatic behavior (S.H.P; 51.50 ± 4.10, I.E. V; 349.33 ± 6.02) and antibacterial behavior (Escherichia coli; 98.45%, Staphylococcus aureus; 98.11%). Our nanocomposite prepared by sputter coating method could be a promising and effective candidate for ultraviolet resistance, antistatic and antibacterial in term of functional, technical, medical and in many daily life applications.

Designing novel antiviral personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial for preventing viral infections such as COVID-19 in humans. Here, we fabricate an electrospun nanofiber-based Viroblock (VB)-loaded polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/zinc oxide (ZnO) hybrid nanocomposite for PPE applications. Five different concentrations of Viroblock (0.5%, 1.5%, 2.5%, 3.5%, and 5%) were added to PAN/ZnO solution and loaded for electrospinning. The developed samples reflected antibacterial activity of 92.59% and 88.64% against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, respectively, with 5% VB loading. Moreover, a significant reduction in virus titer (37%) was observed with the 5% VB/PAN/ZnO nanofiber sheet. Hence, VB-loaded PAN/ZnO nanofibers have great potential to kill enveloped viruses such as influenzas and coronaviruses and could be the ideal candidate for the development of nanofiber-based PPE, such as facemasks and surgical gowns, which can play a key role in the protection of frontline health workers and the general public in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bacterial cellulose is the three-dimensional network structure of nanofibers. The bacterial cellulose materials have outstanding characteristics of high surface area and high crystallinity (84%–89%). It has greater compatibility with the degree of polymerization and has excellent mechanical properties. The water-holding capacity of bacterial cellulose (over 100 ti) makes it stand out from other cellulose materials. This is because bacterial cellulose has high purity due to a lack of lignin and hemicellulose. Bacterial cellulose is considered as a non-cytotoxic, non-genotoxic, and highly biocompatible material, which has broad appeal in the medical field and has attracted widespread attention. The proposed review summarizes the microbial effects of enlisting bacterial strains with carbon sources, and culture media on bacterial cellulose production. In addition, it provides a variety of physical and chemical methods that can be used to modify bacterial cellulose with metal and metal oxide nanoparticles; like the common structure of zinc oxide/bacterial cellulose represent antibacterial characteristics against C.freundii, S.aureus, E.coli, and P.aeruginosa with 90.9%, 94.3%, 90.0%, and 87.4% strength respectively. The wound healing properties of such metallic oxide structure with bacterial cellulose presents the characteristics, which confirms its application in 66% of strength, especially for bionic designs for medical applications, including wound healing and artificial skin, vascular and neurosurgical covering materials, dural prosthesis, arterial stent coating, cartilage, bone repair grafts, and biomedicines. Because of the further exposure of value-added medical material application, our review ends with challenges and perspectives in the production of bacterial cellulose nanocomposite.