Fabrication of fabric-like Bacterial Cellulose/Collagen membranes by applying textile padding method for wound dressing applications

Nowadays, more and more biomaterials have been studied to accelerate wound healing, especially Bacterial Cellulose (BC). Besides ideal properties, pristine BC has been challenged by modern wound dressing requirements (antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities, etc.). Despite previous studies to functionalize BC, high demand is still pressing for productive and efficient methods in creating functional BC wound dressings in composite form. In this work, functional fabric-like BC/Collagen membranes for wound dressing have been investigated using the textile padding method with Collagen, Lactic Acid, Tannic Acid, and Tween 80. The obtained BC/Collagen possesses an innovative grid-embossing surface morphology, high antibacterial activity (up to 94.25 ± 1.31% for Escherichia coli and 78.25 ± 8.50% for Staphylococcus aureus within just 2 min of contact), hydrophilicity (contact angle of less than 15\(^\circ\) within the first second) with water, wound exudate, acidic and alkaline sweats, impressive absorptive capacity (\(\approx\)10 g/100 \(\hbox {cm}^{2}\) within 30 min and \(\approx\)130 g/100 \(\hbox {cm}^{2}\)/30 days) and acidic pH (\(\approx\)2.9). Such properties have proven that these fabric-like BC/Collagen membranes can satisfy modern wound dressing requirements. As a result, this study has provided a pre-eminent finishing method for BC as compared with currently available methods (e.g. high substance distribution and penetration based on material topography, \(\approx\)30 times less needed chemical for environmental protection and resource saving).