What is the relevance of studying morphology of an injectable gel?
Can we visualize the porous structure of injectable gels by SEM imaging of freeze dried samples ? If not can you suggest me some other sample preparation methods for SEM (not Cryo-SEM).
Thanking You
try an optic method such as OCT, you can work with the probe while liquid
Although people show porosity of freeze dried hydrogels, I totally disagree with it, as the freeze dried sample is completely different from real swollen hydrogel. The images are good for publication, but it is useless. I suggest you can calculate porosity from the rheology data. It is also not accurate, and takes into account some assumptions but it is a measure from the real system. You can read our AFM paper to do that calculations.
Best of luck
not an expert here but i would start with making a thin film coat using you hydrogel and observe under optical microscope. This would be quite handy if the pore sizes you are looking at is more then 5-10 microns.
Another way would be to use AFM compatible with biological sample. The would easily be able to scan the viscous substrate giving you the complete morphology. The only problem in the x-y plot and no Z.
Am not sure but hope someone will be able to put some light on using confocal microscope for such application.
Hello,
I am agree with using AFM in non-contact mode. I guees using confocal microscopy with quantum dots could be helpful, however Im not very sure.
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