Multifunctional Hydrogel Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 June 2025 | Viewed by 3416

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
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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

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Keywords

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

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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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 - 2 Apr 2024
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3051
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)
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