Investigation of morphological, mechanical and biological properties of cellulose nanocrystal reinforced electrospun gelatin nanofibers

Incorporation of nanoparticles into biomaterials is of interest due to the high demand for medical devices with enhanced mechanical properties. In this study, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were incorporated in electrospun gelatin nanofibers at various loadings (0–15% w/w) and characterized using XRD, TGA, TEM, SEM, FTIR, and tensile tests. Results obtained from TGA and tensile properties indicate that CNC were agglomerated at loadings exceeding 5%; however, TEM showed excellent dispersion of nanoparticles at 5% CNC. A slight increase in biodegradability of crosslinked gelatin nanofibers was observed with CNC incorporation. MTT cytotoxicity, fluorescent staining, and SEM images showed that CNC had no significant effect on cell growth and proliferation.