Composite hydrogels produce air bubbles when they are subjected to gamma radiation during production.
I am very sorry for not being able to give you a clear answer, because I have never used gamma irradiation in the synthesis of composite hydrogels. I wish you to be successful in finding the appropriate advice from other researchers.
It seems convenient to ensure that the water used to form the hydrogel has a relatively low content of dissolved gases, far from saturation. For that it seems convenient to use distilled water (or otherwise boiled), while avoiding aeration by swirling during the sol liquor agitation, in case such a stage occurs prior gelation. Also possible would be to purge the water by sparging a N2 gas stream, or to use sonication of the water (or liquor) followed by reduced pressure. Also convenient could be to decrease temperature during irradiation of the hydrogel.
I did gamma radiation to fabricate hydrogel, I do observe some similar case. The reasons could be:
1, air dissolved in the system which form bubbles;
2, some solvent used in the system are volatile, when crosslinking happens, the heat will evaporate the solvent
Can do the gamma radiation at lower speed, it is easy to achieve that by adding a lead/steel shield around your samples
seal under vaccum can be an option. But when I take the mixture out and pass microwave air bubbles are producing again.
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