fig3

Figure 3. (A) Photograph of the as-prepared wet-hydrogel sample (f_w ~0.78). (B) ESEM image of the dry hydrogel morphology. (C) Measured FTIR spectra for the wet hydrogel sample. XRD patterns of the wet, dry and ice hydrogel samples are plotted in (D), where the well-defined reflections from the ice phase are labelled. (E) Measured DSC curves for this hydrogel sample in the cooling-warming cycle with cooling/warming rates of 5, 8 and 10 K/min, respectively. (F) Measured storage moduli (G′) and loss moduli (G′′) as a function of temperature T. ESEM: Environmental scanning electron microscopy; FTIR: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; XRD: X-ray diffraction; DSC: differential scanning calorimetry.