I'm working on alginate-based hydrogels and I want to observe the microstructures (porosity, roughness, etc.). The hydrogels were produced by gelation in aqueous calcium chloride. SEM is out of the question since that would require drying which would collapse the structures.
I'm considering TEM, is this advisable? Although, I would appreciate if anyone can suggest something less expensive.
Google your question. You'll see there are multiple protocols for SEM specimen preparation of your material. I would not advise to use TEM.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1OPRB_enUS553US553&q=alginate-based+hydrogels+sem+images&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4nq6e4q_kAhUOiqwKHd68Cg4QsAR6BAgKEAE&biw=1563&bih=920
You can examine the possibility of using Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) for your studies, since ESEM does not require high vacuum, which is why it is widely used for investigation of the biological samples. For example yo may review the following link as an example for using ESEM:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/36908938/5._PPF-Alg_RSC_adv.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DInfluence_of_plasma_protein_hydrogel_int.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190902%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190902T011005Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=1c0f17eb983516a67e89d6e969b3aec0137f4e3868ff938a94ad372af06778e9
Dear Bahram Roughani , unfortunately paper you recommended does not have a protocol for ESEM study and pictures are of very poor quality (no pores are really visible). Surely ESEM could be used, but great care should be taken when hydrogels are observed.
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