Scaffolds were characterized based on their chemical bonds,weight loss variation and morphology. The chemical bonds were evaluated with an Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (ATR-FTIR; Nicolet Nexus Continuum, Thermo Scientific, Waltham, USA). The spectra were collected in the range of 4000–397 cm−1.
The weight loss was determined by weighing the scaffolds after crosslinking, Wc. Then the scaffolds were immersed in distilled water for 3 days, at room temperature, and after 3 days of drying in a desiccator the samples were weighted, Wd. The weight loss ΔW (%) was
obtained according to Eq. (1):