Is cryo scanning electron microscopy possible for hydrogel morphology and structure? Is there a Cryo-SEM facility in India or any other option to check structure morphology other than Cryo-SEM?
(1.1) yes, Cryo-SEM is possible to characterise the hydrogel morphology. Alternatively, you could use a normal SEM with low voltage. To try not to damage your sample much, and if you are quick doing the SEM adjustments, you can get really good images.
I was able to image with a low-Voltage (1KeV) and no coatings biopolymers, so this should be possible, but only in the dried state, and you have to careful to relate the dried state to the aqueous state of the hydrogel.
(1.2) Another option is to use a dye to stain the hydrogel (typically hydrophobic) and use confocal microscopy, also works really well.
(1.3) Rheology is the most used technique to characterise the mechanical properties of a hydrogel, you have to choose the appropriate geometry (e.g. plate-plate), but this should give a lot of interesting parameters specific to your hydrogel, G', G'', breakage strain and you can make kinetic measurement while forming your hydrogel.
(2) A colleague of yours told me this two places:
National Institute of Virology, Pune.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
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