Visual characterisation of the UV patterned hydrogels with brightfield micrographs of the PD hydrogel etched with a cross shaped pattern (A), or hydrogel patterned with striped grooves of 20 μm and channels of 20 μm at x 10 (B) and x 20 (C) magnification. The hydrogel patterns were plated with copper and visualised with optical profilometry, exemplified in (D) and (E) at different magnifications of the 67% PD hydrogel. Quantification of the groove width (bottom of channel), channel width (top of channel) and channel depth (step height between the two) are shown in (F). The groove and channel widths were similar across compositions, but channel depth increased with PD concentration. * denotes statistical significance with p < 0.05, n = 6, Error bars denote standard deviation.