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Abstract In this work, a kind of novel antibacterial and biocompatible composite hydrogels composed of zinc oxide, bacterial cellulose (BC), and chitosan (CS) are prepared via immersing the oxidized BC hydrogels in CS solution and then combining zinc oxide in alkaline environment. The structure and properties of the composite hydrogels are characterized by different techniques. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction prove the successful preparation of composite hydrogels. Scanning electron microscopy is used to study the microscopic morphology of hydrogels. The results show that the zinc oxide particles are successfully attached to the bacterial cellulose. From the results of thermogravimetric analysis, it can be seen that the hydrogels exhibit well thermal stability. For 0.03 m zinc oxide @bacterial cellulose‐chitosan (ZnO@BCCS) hydrogels, the compressive stress is as high as 440 kPa at a deformation of 60%, which is 15 times that of BC hydrogels. Its maximum tensile stress is 880 kPa. The maximum inhibition rates of 0.05 m ZnO@BCCS hydrogels against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are 78.9% and 77.6%, respectively. The cytotoxicity evaluation results show that the hydrogels have low cytotoxicity and good cell compatibility.
Jiang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.