Electrospinning of Gelatin Nanofibers: Effect of gelatin concentration on chemical, morphological and degradation characteristics

Abstract

Electrospinning is a well-known technique that produces polymeric nanofibers using an electrically driven jet of a polymer solution. Due to unique properties such as high surface area, porosity, tensile strength and extensibility of the materials produced by electrospinning, several applications of them in protective clothing, space technology, filtration and tissue engineering have been proposed and investigated. In this study; we prepared gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds by using the electrospinning method for tissue engineering applications. The beads-free, smooth and uniform gelatin nanofibers were successfully fabricated. The blend solutions at different weight ratios were prepared by dissolving gelatin in a solvent mixture containing formic acid, dichloromethane and acetic acid. The fabricated nanofibers were chemically crosslinked by glutaraldehyde vapor. The crosslinked nanofibrous scaffolds were characterized by chemical and morphological analysis. The morphology and size distribution curves of nanofibers were determined by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical structure of nanofibers was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The strategy based on electrospinning of gelatin nanofibers can be used to develop new biomimetic materials for tissue engineering applications.

Keywords

• Gelatin
• Electrospinning
• Nanofiber
• Scaffold
• Tissue engineering

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