Application of biocellulose as an acoustic membrane

Traditionally, membrane of cone loudspeakers are made of paper (cone paper), formed with cellulose fibers. Bacterial cellulose or biocellulose is known as nata de coco which is produced by coconut water fermentation using Acetobacter. A sheet obtained from the biocellulose has good mechanical properties i.e the Young \u27s modulus of a sheet prepared using hotpress processing was 13 GPa. Improvement of the mechanical properties can be achieved by treating the biocellulose with alkali or oxidant solutions. The Young\u27s modulus of the sheet of biocellulose has reached 23.5 GPa with tan 60.02 (an acoustic absorption property), and sound velocity as high as 4522.67 m/sec. These characters showed that biocellulose sheet prepared from coconut water fermentation showed good acoustic characteristic. It means that the replacement of cone paper loudspeaker with a cone biocellulose is prospective . Based on these characters, an experiment has been conducted to construct cone loudspeaker from the\u27biocellulose material with size and shape similar to those of marketed cone loudspeaker. Frequency respons of cone type loudspeakers made of bacterial cellulose shows that it has wide frequency range, from low to high. Keywords: biocellulose â acetobactor â cone type loudspeake