Abstract
The bacterial cellulose has many unique properties that are potentially and commercially beneficial. In order to make opaque product from this cellulose, filling properties by fillers should be known. This study was performed to investigate the effect of filler addition on physical properties of sheets from bacterial cellulose. The effect of filling on its optical properties was also discussed. The apparent density and internal bonding strength of bacterial cellulose sheet are decreasing with the increase of filler contents. Those adversely affect Young's modulus and physical property of the sheet, but these negative phenomena of the bacterial cellulose sheet by filler addition are not so sensitive compared to substantial decreasing of physical properties of ordinary hardwood KP. This strength decrease would be attributed to the decrease of relative bonding sites among pulp fibers. Concerned to optical properties, the bacterial cellulose sheet shows high increase of brightness and opacity according to filler loading, but no significant changes in porosity up to 17.3% loading because of fine and filamentous structure of bacterial cellulose fibers.