Hi to everyone, I'm trying to obtain information about the morphology of small cylinders of GelMA. As they were too thick we cut them prior to standard treatment with Pt/pd coating required for SEM imaging. However, this process seems to alter the hydrogel structure leading to no significant data. Can GelMA films work better? We want to try heat-drying the samples instead of freeze-drying them but my concern is creating a temperature gradient that can alter the porosity. Has anyone ever tried this method?
Cesare Gabriele Gaglio
It looks like you used the following method
GelMA hydrogels were placed on copper meshes, flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and lyophilized by vacuum freeze dryer overnight. The specimen surface was then coated with gold/palladium Pt/Pd) for SEM observation.
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Freeze drying is the best for this purpose. The Pt / Pd coating is necessary to protect the film from electron beams that decompose organic matter. I would try using a SEM after freeze drying, but keep the sample in the chamber for as little time as possible.
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