Ce_1-ZrO₂ nanoparticles in bacterial cellulose, bio-based composites with self-regenerating antioxidant capabilities

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an emerging biopolymer with ever-widening uses in the biomedical field due to its purity, mechanical stability, conformability, moisture control, and biocompatibility. In the wet form, its highly porous nanofibrillar structure and abundant surface hydroxyl groups enable the functionalisation of BC with inorganic nanoparticles (NPs), granting the material additional purposive capabilities. As oxidative stress caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) negatively affects various cellular structures, the functionalisation of BC with CeO₂ NPs, known antioxidants, is pursued in this work to achieve composites capable of minimising inflammation and tissue damage. We report on low-temperature in situ syntheses of CeO₂ NPs in BC enabling the formation of BC-CeO₂ composites that exhibit self-regenerating antioxidant properties, as verified by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays and studies of the evolution in the CeO₂ absorption edge (indicative of the Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺ fractions). X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) further reveals that incorporation of zirconium into the CeO₂ lattice leads to a four-fold increase in the Ce³⁺: Ce⁴⁺ ratio, thereby enhancing the composite antioxidant performance as exemplified by BC-Ce_0.6Zr_0.4O₂ recording the highest %DPPH scavenging per unit mass of NPs among the BC-Ce_1-ZrO₂ studied systems.