Sc7640 high resolution sputter coater

The structure of EKGel was studied by using SEM. Supercritical point drying was utilized to prepare hydrogel samples. EKGel samples were allowed to gel overnight at 37 °C and then were fixed by submerging them in 2 wt% glutaraldehyde in HBSS for 24 h and washed with deionized water three times. Subsequently, the water was exchanged with ethanol by consecutively submerging the EKGel for 30 min in 30, 50, 70, and 90 v/v% ethanol/water mixtures and then finally in anhydrous ethanol three times. Ethanol was then removed using an Autosamdri-810 Tousimis critical point dryer. The dried EKGel was then fractured. The samples were imaged on a Quanta FEI Scanning Electron Microscope (10 kV). For enhanced visualization, the samples were gold-coated using an SC7640 High Resolution Sputter Coater (Quorum Technologies). The analysis of fiber diameter was performed on EKGel samples without gold sputtering, as the fiber dimensions could be obscured by gold coating. Structural analysis was performed manually using ImageJ software. One EKGel sample was imaged for each C total . To avoid bias, the image analysis was conducted independently by two scientists. For each EKGel sample, 6 to 10 images of different regions were taken, and 10 to 20 fibers were analyzed in each image.