Different intensities (5.41 -18.0 mW cm -2 ) and polymerization times (15 -30 min) were investigated to find suitable polymerization time. For each condition, 2 sets of gels were polymerized, one set was directly stained with Rhodamine 6G and imaged, the other was irradiated an additional 2 min with UVC light before being submerged into Rhodamine 6G solution and imaged. Incompletely polymerized gels would still contain amounts of monomer, leading to a stagnation in the degradation curves or even an increase in size, whereas fully polymerized gels would only experience UV light induced degradation, leading to a decrease in size. Suitable conditions would yield homogeneous pads that respond to irradiation with a decrease in size. Based on the highest decrease in pad size during the first 60 s of UVC induced degradation and the formation of stable, homogeneous polymer pads, 30 min polymerization time at 5.41 mW cm -2 were considered optimal (Figure ). Since the irradiation was performed under oxygen atmosphere, the influence of reactive oxygen species due to the photosensitizing properties of the dye in the mixture needed to be evaluated, to make sure all degradation processes were material properties and not induced through photosensitizing compounds. Non-degradable polymer compositions that were chemically similar to our model material with the only difference being the substitution of degradable methacrylate groups by acrylates were polymerized under the same conditions. These poly(ethylene glycol) acrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGA-co-PEGDA) hydrogels were stained the same way, by submerging and swelling in an aqueous rhodamine 6G solution, and the change in size after 15 min irradiation with UVC light compared to the starting value after swelling was measured. The comparison of the final value and the end-point showed no significant decrease in the hydrogel's fluorescence area, indicating that the dye did not enable additional degradation mechanisms under the used conditions, making it suitable for the analysis of degradation behaviors (Figure ).