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Environmental SEM Study of Sodium Alginate Beads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

John Mansfield ,
Petra Eiselt ,
Julia Yeh  and
David J. Mooney
John Mansfield
Affiliation:
North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory 417 SRB, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward, Ann ArborMI48109-2143
Petra Eiselt
Affiliation:
Departments of Chemical Engineering University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI48109-2136
Julia Yeh
Affiliation:
Departments of Biomedical Engineering and University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI48109-2136
David J. Mooney
Affiliation:
Departments of Biological and Materials Science University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI48109-2136
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Extract

A variety of porous materials are used in a number of tissue-engineering applications such as cell transplantation and drug delivery. They provide a temporary scaffolding for a large cell mass, however they must have a fully interconnected pore structure. One such material is sodium alginate, a naturally derived polysaccharide which is isolated from seaweed. Sodium alginate can de dissolved in water to form a highly viscous solution that can be cross-linked in the presence of divalent cations (e.g., Ca2+) to form what is known a as hydrogels. We have developed a method for the fabrication of porous beads of sodium alginate and have attempted to measure the pore size, density and distribution in the beads. Characterization of the pore size and distribution is necessary to determine if the material is appropriate to promote cellular in-growth. The characterization procedures have been limited to conventional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimetry. There has been some concern as to the potential introduction of artifacts (spatial distortion) during dehydration and sample preparation during these characterizations.

Type
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy and Other Wet Work
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 5 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '99, Microscopy Society of America 57th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 33rd Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon August 1-5, 1999 , August 1999 , pp. 300 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1. Cameron, R.E., & Donald, A.M., “Minimizing sample evaporation in the environmental scanning electron microscope”, Journal of Microscopy, 1994, Vol.173, No.3, pp.227–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar