Ultra-thin spin coated crosslinkable hydrogels for use in cell sheet recovery—synthesis, characterisation to application, M. E. Nash, W. M. Carroll, P. J. Foley, G. Maguire, C. O' Connell, A. V. Gorelov, S. Beloshapkin, Y. A. Rochev, Soft Matter, 2012,8, 3889-3899.
the question should be clarified more regarding the fact that you are dealing with crosslinked or linear hydrogels. Also a precision should be given to the process used to prepare this this film because shear thinning under stress, temperature , and solvent is important to know for a precise answer. Regards
TEM samples are usually prepared by cryo-microtoming, so actually I don't know why you are worrying and looking for a way to prepare thin film for TEM, or there is a problem when using microtoming. Please let me know. regards
I think the following reference plus the attached files are in accordance with what you are looking for:
- Stimuli-responsive properties of N-isopropylacrylamide-based ultrathin hydrogel films prepared by photo-cross-linking. Langmuir. 2006 Jun 20;22(13):5911-5