Highly Elastic and Breathable PTFE/Hydrogel Hierarchically Compounded Dressing for Multi-Functional Protection and Rapid Wound Healing

Abstract

Accelerating wound healing while reducing patient discomfort remains a major challenge in biomedical engineering. Consequently, dressings providing comfort, barrier protection, and moisture management are essential. Herein, we propose a hierarchical dressing integrating an elastic expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE)-based membrane with functional hydrogels to address multifaceted healing requirements. To circumvent the intrinsic poor creep resistance of PTFE, a modulus-mismatch compound membrane is fabricated by electrospinning thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) onto ePTFE substrates. This strategy induces micro-wrinkling in ePTFE fibers, achieving unprecedented elastic recovery (>90% strain restitution) and super-hydrophobicity (water contact angle >156°) while maintaining high breathability (9,033 g·m-2·d-1 water vapor transmission rate). Furthermore, the three-dimensional nanofibrous TPU network serves as scaffolds for hydrogel immobilization, ensuring structural integrity under tissue motion. This layer-by-layer design integrates synergistic barrier-antimicrobial functions, effectively inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli to accelerate wound healing. The in vivo evaluation under simulated multiple conditions (rain/bacteria/dust) demonstrates that the PTFE/hydrogel dressing achieved 80.95% wound closure on day 6, significantly outperforming gauze (60.7%) and commercial alternatives (42.7%). Overall, the PTFE/hydrogel dressing has high potential as a novel flexible dressing for accelerating wound healing.