• Zulkifli, Farah Hanani
• Shah, Nurul Huda Mohamed
• Khan, Sulaiman
• Kabeb, Siti Maznah

Abstract

<jats:p>Biopolymeric scaffold remains one of promising candidates in various applications, such as biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, smart packaging, and cosmetics, following its advantage of non-toxicity, safety, and sustainability in bioresources. In this study, hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC)/ chitosan (CS) incorporated with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) was fabricated by lyophilization technique, obtaining fine porous scaffolds structure. HEC (5 wt.%) and CS (0.1 wt.%) were prepared and blended at 50:50 ratios following the addition of CNC as nanofiller material at 1, 2 and 3 wt.%. All scaffolds were characterized by their physical, chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties via SEM, ATR-FTIR, DSC and UTM. The SEM results show HEC/CS/CNC with pore diameter ranging from 25 μm to 28 μm. The ATR-FTIR spectra indicates a broad peak of O-H stretching at 3382 cm<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> to 3397 cm<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>, and C=O stretching of amide group in the range of1645cm<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> to 1653 cm<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>. Mechanical testing of the samples showed increasing tensile strength with increased concentration of CNC, indicating the improved toughness of the samples. The DSC result indicates a slight decrease in glass transition and melting temperature. Overall, the HEC/CS/CNC was successfully fabricated into bioplymeric scaffolds and could be a potential substrate for biomedical application.</jats:p>

Topics

• porous
• pore
• scanning electron microscopy
• glass
• glass
• strength
• differential scanning calorimetry
• tensile strength
• cellulose
• toxicity
• melting temperature