Gloved hands hold a translucent sheet of bacterial cellulose developed as a plastic alternative. University of Houston
Amid mounting plastic waste, a US engineer has developed a single-step method to grow strong, biodegradable sheets using bacteria.
Maksud Rahman, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Houston, led the effort to convert bacterial cellulose into a high-performance material that could replace plastic in everyday use.
The innovation lies not just in the material, but in how it’s made. By controlling bacterial motion inside a spinning incubator, the team guided the production of aligned cellulose nanofibers.
The result is a flexible yet strong sheet with uses ranging from packaging to medical dressings.
“We envision these strong, multifunctional and eco-friendly bacterial cellulose sheets becoming ubiquitous, replacing plastics in various industries and helping mitigate environmental damage,” Rahman said.
Bacterial cellulose, already known for being naturally abundant and biodegradable, forms the backbone of this new material. But the researchers didn’t stop there.
They enhanced the cellulose sheets by adding boron nitride nanosheets to the nutrient solution. This allowed them to fabricate hybrid sheets with significantly better properties.
The composite sheets showed remarkable tensile strength, up to 553 MPa, and superior thermal conductivity. According to the study, they dissipated heat three times faster than untreated samples.
Maksud Rahman, University of Houston assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, holds the bioplastic. Credit – UH
“We report a simple, single-step and scalable bottom-up strategy to biosynthesize robust bacterial cellulose sheets with aligned nanofibrils and bacterial cellulose-based multi-functional hybrid nanosheets using shear forces from fluid flow in a rotational culture device,” Rahman explained.
M.A.S.R. Saadi, a Rice University doctoral student and first author of the study, said, “The resulting bacterial cellulose sheets display high tensile strength flexibility, foldability, optical transparency, and long-term mechanical stability.”
Rice postdoctoral fellow Shyam Bhakta supported the biological implementation.
The key innovation is a custom rotation culture device. Shaped like a cylinder and permeable to oxygen, the incubator spins on a central shaft.
This continuous motion causes directional fluid flow, prompting bacteria to travel in an organized path.
“We’re essentially guiding the bacteria to behave with purpose,” Rahman said. “Rather than moving randomly, we direct their motion, so they produce cellulose in an organized way.”
The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights a major step toward scalable, green manufacturing.
Unlike traditional bioplastics that often require energy-intensive processing, this approach uses simple biological principles enhanced by mechanical design.
With growing interest in sustainable materials, Rahman’s technique could see widespread adoption in industries pushing to reduce plastic dependency.
The team believes this method can open the door to a wide range of industrial uses.
“This scalable, single-step bio-fabrication approach yielding aligned, strong and multifunctional bacterial cellulose sheets would pave the way towards applications in structural materials, thermal management, packaging, textiles, green electronics and energy storage,” Rahman added.
By marrying biology, materials science, and nanoengineering, the team has created a viable path to sustainable, high-performance alternatives to plastic, without relying on petroleum-based materials or complex chemical processing.
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