A dry and fully dispersible bacterial cellulose formulation as a stabilizer for oil-in-water emulsions

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an emerging alternative to plant cellulose in different applications. Several works demonstrated the potential of never-dried BC; however, envisioning real industrial applications, a dry product retaining its functional properties upon rehydration is preferable.

A dry and completely redispersible formulation of BC with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was prepared by Spray-drying. The obtained material showed a Zeta Potential of (-67.0±3.9) mV, a Dv(50) of (601±19.7) µm and was able to decrease the oil/water interface energy.

The dry BC:CMC formulation was employed as stabilizer in oil-in-water emulsions, in parallel with commercial plant celluloses and Xanthan gum. The emulsions were monitored over time by optical microscopy and characterized by rheological measurements. BC:CMC effectively stabilized emulsions against coalescence and creaming, at a concentration of 0.50 % - contrarily to other commercial dry celluloses due to the Pickering effect and to the structuring of the continuous phase, as seen with Cryo-SEM.