Dear Colleagues,

Cellulose is the most abundant natural biopolymer on Earth. With an estimated annual production of ~1.5 × 10¹² tons globally and the possibility of its extraction even from waste sources, it is considered an almost inexhaustible source of raw material capable of making up for the growing demand for environmentally friendly and biocompatible products.

Within this framework, cellulose-based hydrogels usually combine hydrophilicity, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and biocompatibility together with low costs and massive availability, which make them extremely attractive in both academic and industrial fields. Potential application fields include biomedical engineering (e.g., tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, drug/cell delivery systems, 3D printing and bioprinting), progress in smart systems (e.g., sensors, actuators, soft robotics) and stimuli-responsive systems (e.g., pH- or thermo-responsive hydrogels), the agricultural sector (e.g., soil conditioning, nutrient carriers, water reservoirs), and water purification.

This Special Issue is aimed at collecting the recent progress in cellulose-based hydrogels, including gels prepared from natural cellulose and its derivatives, cellulose graft co-polymers, and composite gels based on cellulose. We encourage submissions covering key aspects of cellulose-based hydrogels, including design, characterization, as well as application-focused research.

As Guest Editors, we would kindly invite you to contribute a research paper or a review on any topic related to this thread.

Dr. Lorenzo Bonetti
Dr. Laura Riva
Dr. Christian Demitri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cellulose
• nanocellulose
• cellulose derivatives
• cellulose-based composites
• hydrogels
• design
• characterization
• applications

• Advances in Cellulose-Based Hydrogels (2nd Edition) in Gels (17 articles)
• Advances in Cellulose-Based Hydrogels in Gels (16 articles)