purposes only and is not to be taken as limiting the invention polyacrylamide hydrogel arrays were fabricated on glass slides with dimensions of 3 inch by 1 inch the hydrogel array was photopolymerized on the glass slide using bisacrylamide as cross linking agent at a final concentration of 5 the polymerized hydrogel pads had final dimensions of 100 u03bcm by 100 u03bcm a thickness of 25 u03bcm and a pad to pad distance of 300 u03bcm the size of the complete array was 28 test sites by 28 test sites following preparation the hydrogel arrays were hydrated in water for one hour during hydration electroless plating solution oremerse mn obtained from technic inc cranston r i containing 0 25 g gal elemental gold was heated to 65 u00b0 c and allowed to stabilize at that temperature in a water bath hydrogel arrays were immersed in the plating solution for between 1 minute and 60 minutes the thickness of the gold plating being applied to the surface of the hydrogel media was controlled by varying the temperature of the water bath and the plating time the optimum temperature and concentration of the plating metal and length of plating time were selected to minimize artifacts being introduced into the hydrogel porous media the goal was to select plating conditions in which an accurate representation of the porous hydrogel media in its native state could be obtained while generating a mechanically stable matrix capable of withstanding characterization by standard methods in the art following plating traces of the plating solution were removed by rinsing the hydrogel arrays in distilled water and allowing the hydrogel arrays to air dry plated hydrogel arrays and unplated controls were then examined by scanning electron microscopy sem fig1 illustrates a scanning electron micrograph.