CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 80, 2020 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.cetjournal.it Guest Editors: Eliseo Maria Ranzi, Rubens Maciel Filho Copyright © 2020, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. I SBN 978-88-95608-78-5; I SSN 2283-9216 Strengthening Scaffold by Using Carbodiimide Crosslinking on Gelatin/Carboxymethylcellulose from Waste Product Seksan Chaijit*, Fasai Wiwatwongwana Department of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Pathumwan Institute of Technology, 833 Rama 1 Road, Wangmai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand seksacha@gmail.com Gelatin and carboxymethylcellose from waste product were selected for wound replacement application. Carbodiimide was used to strengthen the scaffold structure which made from gelatin mixed with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) using freeze drying method. The mixed scaffold was fabricated in various gelatin/CMC ratios which were 100/0, 90/10, 80/20 and 70/30, respectively. The mechanical characterization of the scaffold was done by using universal testing machine (UTM) to determine compressive modulus. The results showed the highest value compressive modulus which was from gelatin/CMC at ratio of 70/30 with 4.80±1.95 kPa. The compressive modulus from gelatin/CMC at ratio of 80/20 showed the lowest value with 1.48±0.58 kPa. The 3D Finite element analysis could predict stress distribution and shear stress that were consistency with experimental data. It shown deformation behavior of the scaffold which was the similar trend with the experimental result in every case. The strain energy from finite element analysis of 70/30 scaffold showed the highest value. From the results, this condition of scaffold could be used for wound replacement applications. 1. Introduction The scaffold or skin replacement material which is a biocompatible and biodegradable material, has been widely used and recently available in tissue engineering applications. Its functions have to promote cells and biologically active molecules into functional tissues. Skin loss in patient can cause from various different causes such as diseases, burns and accidents. The main functions of the scaffold are to prevent infection and accelerate the wound healing for skin tissue regeneration. Its properties require suitable conditions for skin to heal the wound (Ma 2004 and Ma 2006). The currently available scaffolds are expensive due to its components and extractions. Therefore, the propose of this research is to produce the cheaper scaffold which has the same functions. The scaffold fabrication has to be designed for supporting and recovery mechanism of skin functions. The scaffold design is depend on tissue engineering applications. The various naturally or synthetically biomaterials can be used to fabricate the scaffolds (Park 2002 and Hollinger 2012 and Wiwatwongwana 2019 and Romero et al. 2018). The mechanical behaviour of the scaffold is the important functions which can be supported the compressive and tensile strength during implantation and tissue regeneration. Moreover, the appropriate pore size and interconnected pore are need for scaffold structure because it have to provide fibroblast cells to migrate, differentiation and growth in the scaffold. The scaffold should be biocompatible and biodegradable materials. The mechanical properties of scaffold behavior have to be investigated before testing with fibroblast cells. There also have many research studies on finite element models (FEM) of various scaffolds in order to calculate the mechanical behavior of the scaffold and also load transfer from the biomaterial structure to the biological entities. The structure of the scaffold shows a behavior of rubber-like material which can be modeled in the framework of hyperelasticity and its behavior normally has nonlinear stress-strain responses due to the elastomeric behavior (Butcher et al. 2017 and Faghihi et al. 2014 and Kim et al. 2012 and Benitez 2017 and Delong et al. 2008). Gelatin is one of biopolymer that is the most widely used for scaffold fabrication due to positively interacted with cells. There have many research studies approved for in vitro biocompatible test for gelatin with fibroblast cells. The results showed that gelatin scaffolds could be able to maintain cells with good DOI: 10.3303/CET2080056 Paper Received: 10 November 2019; Revised: 18 January 2020; Accepted: 14 April 2020 Please cite this article as: Chaijit S., Wiwatwongwana F., 2020, Strengthening Scaffold by Using Carbodiimide Crosslinking on Gelatin/carboxymethylcellulose from Waste Product, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 80, 331-336 DOI:10.3303/CET2080056 331