Abstract:
Fabrication scaffold as a template used in cell culture requires appropriate porosity and pore size. Therefore, the porosity must be investigated to enable cells to grow through the scaffold. This engineering project objective is to study a method for preliminary investigation of scaffold porosity using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technique and to investigate the correlation between the porosity and conductivity in the scaffold, the fabricate materials were Qatarized Chitosan and Bacterial Cellulose mixed with different amounts of Polyvinyl Alcohol. Fabrication was carried out by Freeze Dry method. After that, the swelling ratio was performed to determine the porosity percentage of the scaffold. The electrical conductivity was measured using Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) with a Wenner Array tipped electrode probe to determine the correlation between the porosity and the electrical conductivity in a scaffold that is immersed in a vacuum removed saline solution. The experiment concludes that The correlation between scaffold porosity and conductivity of scaffold was positive. Also, when increasing the amount of Polyvinyl Alcohol, as a result, the porosity of Polyvinyl Alcohol material was reduced by an average of 6.73 percent. This is different from the composite Polyvinyl Alcohol material. The average porosity was increased by 9.34 percent, The correlation of both materials increased according to the amount of Polyvinyl Alcohol as well.
