Characterizing the swelling behavior of the materials started by first fabricating 50 µL gel discs using custom molds, as described under the compressive mechanical testing. Next, the samples were weighed, then half were frozen for lyophilization, while the other half was left to swell in 400 µL of reverseosmosis water for 24 hours. After swelling, the gels were weighed, then lyophilized. The wet and dry weights were compared to calculate the swelling ratio and equilibrium water content, as shown through All structures, but the gyroids, were designed inhouse using Fusion 360 (Autodesk, USA). The gyroid structures were generated using nTop CAD software (nTopology, 4.12, USA). The gyroid shape was confined to a digital volume composed of a cylinder with a diameter of 5 millimeters and a height of 5 millimeters. Then, a walled triply periodic minimal surface was applied to this cylinder; a gyroid lattice structure with a unit cell volume of 1.5 mm 3 , and a wall thickness of 150 µm was used to generate an