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Supplementary Material on

Marshmallow-like silicone gels as flexible thermal insulators and liquid

nitrogen retention materials and their application in containers for

cryopreserved embryos

Gen Hayase* and Yasutaka Ohya

*gen@aerogel.jp

Movie S1 Time-lapse movie of the sample MG-15 during evaporative drying. One second in

this movie is equal to 30 min of actual time.

Movie S2 Reconstructed image of microCT tomography of the sample MG-15 (See also Figure

2c).

Movie S3 The surface of the sample MG-15 repelling water.

Fig. S1 Microscopic image of two-cell stage embryos. From the shape, it can be determined

that the embryo indicated by the arrow is dead.

MG-25 MG-30

MG-40MG-35

MG-50 MG-60

MG-80 MG-100

Fig. S2 Particle size distribution of the MGs.

Fig. S3 SEM images of the marshmallow-like gels (a) MG-5, (b) MG-10, (c) MG-15, and (d)

MG-20 prepared by increasing urea by 20 % in the starting composition. There was no clear

change due to the increase in urea (see also Fig. 2).

MG-25 MG-30

MG-40MG-35

MG-50 MG-60

MG-80 MG-100

Fig. S4 Particle size distribution of the MGs prepared by increasing urea by 20 % in the starting

composition. There was no clear change due to the increase in urea (see also Fig. S2).

Fig. S5 Thermographic image during evaporation drying of the marshmallow-like gel MG-15.

The wet gel during evaporation kept the temperature lower than the heat source.

Fig. S6 (a) Photographs of cloths (cut into ~10 mm square) and the container with polyester

(PE).

Table S1 Number of surviving embryos in each experimental test.

Sample Tria

l

Time

[min, min, min]

Number of frozen/thawed

embryos

Number of surviving

embryos

2-cell stage 4-cell stage

MG-15 1 60, 120, 180 40, 40, 40 39, 40, 40 36, 36, 35

2 60, 120, 180 39, 40, 40 39, 39, 40 37, 36, 37

3 60, 120, 180 39, 40, 40 38, 40, 40 35, 36, 38

1 180, 360, 540 40, 40, 39 40, 40, 39 38, 35, 36

2 180, 360, 540 40, 40, 40 40, 40, 39 35, 37, 36

3 180, 360, 540 40, 39, 40 40, 39, 40 39, 38, 36

PE 1 60, 120, 180 40, 39, 40 40, 38, 39 38, 34, 37

2 60, 120, 180 40, 40, 40 40, 40, 40 36, 37, 36

3 60, 120, 180 40, 39, 40 40, 39, 40 37, 36, 36

1 180, 360, 540 40, 39, 40 40, 0, 0 37, 0, 0

2 180, 360, 540 40, 39, 39 39, 0, 0 35, 0, 0

3 180, 360, 540 40, 39, 38 40, 0, 0 36, 0, 0