ORIGINAL PAPER Bacterial cellulose/triethanolamine based ion-conducting membranes Denise T. B. De Salvi • Hernane S. Barud • Agnieszka Pawlicka • Ritamara I. Mattos • Ellen Raphael • Youne ´s Messaddeq • Sidney J. L. Ribeiro Received: 1 October 2013 / Accepted: 20 February 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract New bacterial cellulose (BC)–triethanola- mine (TEA) ion-conducting membranes have been prepared and characterized. The samples were obtained by soaking BC membranes in triethanola- mine aqueous solutions and drying. The scanning electron microscopy pictures revealed that the incor- poration of TEA in BC membranes covers the cellulose microfibrils. Raman spectra exhibited BC and TEA characteristic group frequencies and thermal analysis evidenced an influence of TEA content on the sample thermal stability. The ion-conductivity as a function of the temperature showed an Arrhenius behavior increasing from 1.8 9 10 -5 S/cm at room temperature to 7.0 9 10 -4 S/cm at 80 °C for the BC–TEA 1 M sample. Keywords Bacterial cellulose  Ion-conduction  Triethanolamine  Membranes Introduction Gram-negative acetic-acid-producing bacteria of the genus Acetobacter secrete bacterial cellulose (BC) as ribbon-shaped fibrils, less than 100 nm wide (Iguchi et al. 2000; Siro and Plackett 2010). These fibrils are entangled in a 3-D network that, combined with the hydroxyl groups present in bacterial cellulose struc- ture ensure higher hydrophilicity, crystallinity, mechanical resistance and purity in comparison with cellulose extracted from plants (Barud et al. 2007, D. T. B. De Salvi (&)  H. S. Barud  Y. Messaddeq  S. J. L. Ribeiro Institute of Chemistry, Sa ˜o Paulo State Univ-UNESP, CP 355, Araraquara, SP 14801-970, Brazil e-mail: denisequimica@gmail.com H. S. Barud e-mail: hernane.barud@gmail.com Y. Messaddeq e-mail: younes.messaddeq@copl.ulaval.ca A. Pawlicka  R. I. Mattos  E. Raphael IQSC-USP, Sa ˜o Carlos, SP, Brazil e-mail: agnieszka@iqsc.usp.br R. I. Mattos e-mail: cristal_br@yahoo.com.br E. Raphael e-mail: ellen.raphael@gmail.com R. I. Mattos FZEA-USP, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil E. Raphael DCNAT-UFSJ, Sa ˜o Joa ˜o Del Rei, MG, Brazil Y. Messaddeq Centre d 0 optique, photonique et laser (COPL), Universite ´ Laval, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada 123 Cellulose DOI 10.1007/s10570-014-0212-8