Figure 10.

Illustration of possible double-network structure in silanized hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (Si-HPMC)/Laponite composite hydrogel. The curve line represents Si-HPMC polymer chain, the little plates represent Laponite and the round dots represent crosslink point where silanol condensation occurred. The silanols come from both Si-HPMC and Laponite. As Laponite has been dyed by Auramine O, the compact mass composed of aggregated Laponite and entangled polymer chain is in red under CLSM. It is likely that the XLS aggregates are more random than purely edge-faces contacts.