Lightweight aerogels based on bacterial cellulose/silver nanoparticles/polyaniline with tuning morphology of polyaniline and application in soft tissue engineering.

Herein, polyaniline (PANI) with tuning morphology was in-situ synthesized within bacterial cellulose (BC)/silver nanoparticles hydrogels (AgNPs) that were prepared by green hydrothermal reduction method in different molarity of 0.01 and 0.25 of HCl solution along with the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG). The synthesis of PANI in the presence of PEG in 0.01 M HCl led to the formation of rose-like morphology within nanocomposite aerogels with a size of 1.5–5.2 μm. All aerogels had the porosity and shrinkage of higher than 80% and lower than 10%, respectively. Rheology results showed a higher value of storage modulus (G′) than that of loss modulus (G″) for all samples over the whole frequency regime. It confirmed by the loss factor (tan δ) value of less than 1 for all hydrogel samples. The synthesis of PANI within BC/Ag in 0.25 M of HCl solution resulted in a substantial rise of G′ to nearly 1.5 × 104 Pa that was one order of magnitude higher than that of other hydrogels. However, the synthesis condition of PANI did not influence the antibacterial activity. In spite of unfavorable cell attachment onto nanocomposite aerogels, the cell proliferation increased steadily over the whole period of incubation. Unlabelled Image • PEG and pH had significant impact on the synthesis of PANI with distinct morphology. • The coexistence of PANI and AgNPs within BC increased the storage modulus. • The addition of silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) into BC improved antibacterial activity. • Different morphology of PANI had no influence on the antibacterial activity. • Cell proliferation in ternary nanocomposite aerogels of BC/PANI/Ag rose dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]