Poly(4-vinylaniline)/polyaniline bilayer functionalized bacterial cellulose membranes as bioelectronics interfaces

Bacterial cellulose (BC) fibers are chemically functionalized with poly(4-vinylaniline) (PVAN) interlayer for further enhancement of electrical conductivity and cell viability of polyaniline (PANI) coated BC nanocomposites. PVAN is found to have promoted the formation of a uniform PANI layer with nanofiber- and nanorod-like supramolecular structures, as an overall augmentation of PANI yield. Compositional and microstructural analysis indicates a PVAN/PANI bilayer of approximately 2 μm formed on BC. The solid-state electrical conductivity of such synthesized BC nanocomposites can be as high as (4.5 ± 1.7) × 10^-2 S cm^-1 subject to the amounts of PVAN chemically embraced. BC/PVAN/PANI nanocomposites are confirmed to be thermally stable up to 225 °C, and no signs of cytotoxicity for SVZ neural stem cells are detected, with cell viability up to 90% on BC/PVAN/PANI membranes. We envisage these new electrically conductive BC/PVAN/PANI nanocomposites can potentially enable various biomedical applications, such as for the fabrication of bioelectronic interfaces and biosensors.