Sacrificial Templates Comprising a Hydrogel Cross-linking Agent and Their Use for Customization of Hydrogel Architecture

摘要

Described herein are sacrificial templates generated from water soluble thermoplastic-divalent cation-composite materials, such as poly(vinyl alcohol)-calcium. Also described herein are methods for the use of such sacrificial templates in casting of precise internal space microarchitectures within hydrogels, such as microchannel networks within alginate hydrogels.