Abstract
The wound dressing can be used for burn patient or people who loss of skin. Blending gelatin with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) can be used to produce skin graft for wound dressing application. Gelatin and CMC are waste from livestock production industry and agricultural waste, respectively. This study was emphasized on mechanical properties of composite material. Gelatin which was a biocompatibility material and CMC which was a scaffold strengthening and could improve in elasticity were selected for scaffold fabrication via salt leaching method. The blended scaffold was fabricated in various gelatin/CMC ratios which were 3/0, 2.7/0.3, 2.4/0.6, 2.1/0.9 and 1.8/1.2, respectively. The mechanical characterization of the scaffold was evaluated by compressive test using universal testing machine (UTM). The data obtained from the UTM was used to determine compressive modulus. The results showed the highest value of compressive modulus was obtained from gelatin/CMC at ratio of 1.8/1.2 with 15.16 ± 3.23 kPa. On the other hand, the compressive modulus from pure gelatin showed the lowest value which was 0.93 ± 0.26 kPa. Finite element models could predict the scaffold deformation with 1.8/1.2 scaffold showed the highest range of strain energy which could support loading more than other scaffolds. Therefore, the mechanical strength of 1.8/1.2 scaffold could be applied for wound dressing application. Moreover, this research needed to produce material from waste and added valuable for wound care applications.
