Spinning of collagen fibers and characterizing thermal, mechanical, tensile and structural properties

This study focuses on the wet spinning of collagen fibers using dispersions made from bovine tendon, and to the modification of the resulting fiber properties by cross-linking the collagen with gluteraldehdye. The fibers are characterized for mechanical properties, effect of temperature on dimension changes, temperature dependent heat flow, and temperature dependent weight loss. The above tests are conducted using TMA, DSC and TGA. The fiber diameters and surface features are studied using SEM. The results of these analyses are compared with cross-linking and without cross-linking for each of the three dispersion percentages, 1%, 1.6% and 2%. The mechanical behavior of cross linked collagen fibers was enhanced relative to the non cross linked fibers with higher denaturation temperature and lower tensile deformation.