Mechanical characterization of electrospun gelatin scaffolds cross-linked by glucose

Nanofibrous gelatin scaffolds were prepared by electrospinning from aqueous acetic acid and cross-linked thermally by glucose. The effect of the amount of glucose used as cross-linking agent on the mechanical properties of gelatin fibres was studied in this paper. The elastic modulus of gelatin fibres cross-linked by glucose was determined by modelling the behaviour of the meshes during tensile test. The model draws connections between the elastic moduli of a fibrous mesh and the fibre material and allows evaluation of elastic modulus of the fibre material. It was found that cross-linking by glucose increases the elastic modulus of gelatin fibres from 0.3 GPa at 0 % glucose content to 1.1 GPa at 15 % glucose content. This makes fibrous gelatin scaffolds cross-linked by glucose a promising material for biomedical applications.