Evaluation of ATR-FTIR for analysis of bacterial cellulose impurities

This research evaluated the utility of using the large amount of spectral data obtained during attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometry (ATR-FTIR) analysis of dried biocellulose (BC) to estimate the type and concentration of potential bacterial cells impurities present in the BC. Pre-cleaned BC was contaminated with known concentrations of representative nucleic acid, lipid, and protein impurities, as well as whole bacterial cells. These impurity standards were then subjected to ATR-FTIR analysis, and the resulting spectral data were used to develop models to estimate the concentrations of impurities in differentially processed BC. Results indicated that ATR-FTIR is a useful tool for estimating impurities in BC, and may also be applicable for measurement of levels of non-cellulose biomolecules added to BC for various purposes.