GoKawiilNUS researcher applies freeze-casting technique to create tougher hydrogels
Xinyu Dong, a materials scientist at the National University of Singapore, is adapting freeze casting—a method traditionally used to build ceramic bone-repair scaffolds—to engineer hydrogels with improved structural properties. The technique involves freezing a water-based slurry in a controlled direction so ice crystals push material particles into an organized porous network, which is later preserved after the ice is removed. Dong began this work during her PhD in 2020 and has since extended the approach to aerogels and, in 2024, proposed a new variation of the freeze-casting process for hydrogels.