Multifunctional Hydrogel Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 792

Special Issue Editors

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: biomedical hydrogels; tissue engineering; conductive scaffold; wound healing; hemostasis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
Interests: conductive biomaterials; tissue regeneration; flexible sensor; stimuli-responsive hydrogels

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the pioneering work on crosslinked hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) hydrogels by Wichterle and Lim in 1960, hydrogels have attracted significant attention from materials researchers due to their excellent hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, and the ability to design their three-dimensional network structure and functionality. Multifunctional hydrogels not only possess the basic properties of hydrogels but also exhibit additional characteristics, such as bioactivity, self-healing, adhesion, conductivity, excellent mechanical properties, 3D printing functionality, and intelligent responsiveness. In the field of biomedicine, multifunctional hydrogels have shown tremendous potential and have been extensively researched in various applications including drug delivery systems, tissue engineering scaffolds, wound healing, hemostasis, flexible sensors, bioactive hydrogels, and hydrogels for cancer treatment. These hydrogels have made significant advancements, but their development requires interdisciplinary collaboration and further research.

This Special Issue entitled "Multifunctional Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications" aims to highlight the recent progress in several widely studied application areas of multifunctional hydrogel materials, promoting the development of multifunctional hydrogels with comprehensive properties for biomedical applications. In this context, a wide range of topics will be discussed, including new gel precursors, new network crosslinking mechanisms, multifunctional coupling strategies, biological effect evaluation, and biomedical applications. It is hoped that these topics inspire new research and discoveries in the field of multifunctional hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Dr. Xin Zhao
Dr. Zexing Deng
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. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

Keywords

  • drug delivery system
  • scaffolds for tissue engineering
  • wound healing
  • hemostasis
  • conductive hydrogels for flexible sensors
  • bioactive hydrogels
  • hydrogels for cancer treatment
  • photodynamic therapy

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Review

32 pages, 4955 KiB  
Review
Recent Progress of Anti-Freezing, Anti-Drying, and Anti-Swelling Conductive Hydrogels and Their Applications
by Ying Li, Qiwei Cheng, Zexing Deng, Tao Zhang, Man Luo, Xiaoxiao Huang, Yuheng Wang, Wen Wang and Xin Zhao
Polymers 2024, 16(7), 971; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16070971 - 02 Apr 2024
Viewed by 631
Abstract
Hydrogels are soft–wet materials with a hydrophilic three-dimensional network structure offering controllable stretchability, conductivity, and biocompatibility. However, traditional conductive hydrogels only operate in mild environments and exhibit poor environmental tolerance due to their high water content and hydrophilic network, which result in undesirable [...] Read more.
Hydrogels are soft–wet materials with a hydrophilic three-dimensional network structure offering controllable stretchability, conductivity, and biocompatibility. However, traditional conductive hydrogels only operate in mild environments and exhibit poor environmental tolerance due to their high water content and hydrophilic network, which result in undesirable swelling, susceptibility to freezing at sub-zero temperatures, and structural dehydration through evaporation. The application range of conductive hydrogels is significantly restricted by these limitations. Therefore, developing environmentally tolerant conductive hydrogels (ETCHs) is crucial to increasing the application scope of these materials. In this review, we summarize recent strategies for designing multifunctional conductive hydrogels that possess anti-freezing, anti-drying, and anti-swelling properties. Furthermore, we briefly introduce some of the applications of ETCHs, including wearable sensors, bioelectrodes, soft robots, and wound dressings. The current development status of different types of ETCHs and their limitations are analyzed to further discuss future research directions and development prospects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multifunctional Hydrogel Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop