FThe BCfilmproduced was then rinsed
with running water overnight, placed in a 0.1 M NaOH solution in
a boiling water bath for 1 h, washed with running deionised water
severaltimes untilthe complete removal of alkali, and then dried to
a constant weight at 60 ◦C (Wu, Li, Yang, Xing, Shao & Xing, 2010).
The purified BC was kept in air tight containers and stored at room
temperature (25–30 ◦C). Measurements were carried out in triplicate,
and values recorded were the means ± standard deviation,
using SPSS software version 19.0.