[20p-PA3-1~42] 12.3 Functional Materials and Novel Devices

[20p-PA3-16] Observation of Calcium-Alginate Gel with Cryo-SEM

〇Minoru Aoyagi¹ (1.Nippon Inst. Tech.)

Keywords:hydrogel, calcium alginate

The micrometer-sized network structure of a calcium-alginate hydrogel, which was synthesized from sodium alginate, calcium sulfate dihydrate, trisodium phosphate 12-hydrate, glycerol, and water, was observed using a cryogenic-scanning electron microscope (Cryo-SEM), and an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). Observations with the Cryo-SEM show that the calcium-alginate hydrogel coexisted with the region where the large-scale network structure exists and the region where the large-scale network structure does not exist. The large-scale network structure is formed by the domains and the networks surrounding the domains. The domain size is several tens of micrometers or less, and the network thickness is several hundred nanometers or more. The elemental distribution as measured by EDX showed that Ca and C, which are the primary elements of calcium alginate, were distributed throughout the sample; in particular, their concentrations were higher at the network part.