Preparation and application of sodium alginate/PHMB/Ca2+ high-strength and high-antibacterial hydrogel

Abstract

Wound infection caused by skin injury is the most common medical problem, and wound dressings can provide an appropriate healing environment for the injured skin and control wound inflammation during healing and treatment. Sodium alginate (SA) has been widely used in the biomedicine field as a natural biomass material. Due to excellent biocompatibility and hydrophilicity, hydrogels prepared from sodium alginate have become potential wound dressing materials. SA is natural biomass material, which has been widely applied to biomedicine field. Due to its excellent biocompatibility and hydrophilicity, hydrogels prepared from sodium alginate have become potential wound dressing materials. Hydrogels are extremely biocompatible and adaptable to biological tissues and have shown excellent practicability in biomedical applications. Herein, SA as the raw material was combined with polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB), which is an excellent antibacterial agent, and then combined via an autologous double network structure with macromolecular orientation to prepare a novel and high-strength antimicrobial hydrogel film. The hydrogel was subjected to mechanical strength tests, FTIR, SEM, TG, protein adsorption, and antibacterial test characterizations. Compared with traditional alginate hydrogels, the tensile strength of SA–PHMB/Ca100wt% increased by 1033.33%, and the maximum tensile strength and elongation at the break reached 3.82 MPa and 122.99%, respectively. The SA–PHMB/Ca100wt% hydrogel provides promising application prospects in the medical field.