Analyzing Porous Gel Microstructure via SEM

Cross-sectional images of the dried-gels were acquired using SEM, following published procedures [8 (link)]. For sample preparation, for imaging of the cross-sections, uniform-sized gels were made and freeze-dried and sputter-coated with gold/palladium (2–3 min) in a sputter coater (Gatan Model 682 Precision etching coating system, Pleasantown, CA, USA) and visualized using SEM (S-4800, Hitachi, Japan) at voltages of 12 kV at varying magnifications. Resultant images obtained were analyzed using Image J to determine their average pore diameter (µm) and its variation across samples.