Second Place Winner: Hydrogel

Photo by Satviki Singh, undergraduate student, FAU High School

This photo depicts an electron microscopic image of a chitosan and silver nitrate-based hydrogel, which is being studied as a drug delivery gel for wide spectrum antibiotics. The goal behind this image was to determine how the morphological properties of this hydrogel differ based on the quantity of silver nitrate used and how these properties correspond to the hydrogel's ability to load and unload wide spectrum antibiotics. To image, a small piece of the hydrogel was cut and worked up in ethanol, dried using a critical point dryer, sputter coated in thin layers of gold, and imaged under a scanning electron microscope at 200 μm. The pores on the gel (the holes) will be quantified to determine their impact on the hydrogel’s drug delivery properties. Photo taken using scanning electron microscope imaging at FAU High School Owls Imaging Lab.