Themed collection Hydrogel properties and applications

Guest editors Jun Fu and Marc in het Panhuis introduce this Journal of Materials Chemistry B themed issue on hydrogel properties and applications.

Molecular dynamics (MD) is currently one of the preferred techniques employed to understand hydrogelation processes for its ability to include large amounts of atoms in computational calculations, since substantial amounts of solvent molecules are involved in gel formation.

Hydrogels have garnered interest as materials in bioelectronics due to the capacity to tailor their properties. Appropriate selection and design of hydrogel systems for this application requires an understanding of the physical, chemical and biological properties as well as their structure–property relationships.

Preparation and biomedical applications of self-healing hydrogels assembled from hosts of cyclodextrins and cucurbit[n]urils with various guests were reviewed.

Smart polymers that are capable of controlled shape transformations under external stimuli have attracted significant attention in the recent years due to the resemblance of this behavior to the biological intelligence observed in nature. In this review, we focus on the recent progress in the field of shape-morphing polymers, highlighting their most promising applications in the biomedical field.

Hydrogel-based approaches were reviewed for cardiac tissue engineering and myocardial regeneration in ischemia-induced heart failure, with an emphasis on functional studies, translational status, and clinical advancements.

Synthetic hydrogels are generally amorphous in nature without any order at the molecular level.

This review focuses on state-of-the-art progress in cellulose-based hydrogels, and emphasizes their fascinating properties and biomedical applications.

The recent progress in dynamic hydrogels mediated by macrocyclic host–guest interactions is reviewed.

Applying full cell potential estimation in redox pairs of [PEG-Cat]₄ + M^z+ to elucidate contributions of metal ion precursors on hydrogel properties.

Composite hydrogels were fabricated by photolithographic polymerization to form a non-responsive gel and subsequent thermal polymerization to form a dual-responsive gel. These composite gels with heterogeneous structures showed programmed deformations upon heating or light irradiation.

A flexible spacing coating is introduced to a rigid hydrogel surface to improve the surface compliance for efficient macroscopic supramolecular assembly.

A simple and reliable approach was developed to fabricate thermo-responsive composite hydrogel sheets with spatially patterned regions of plasmonic gold nanoparticles. The same hydrogel exhibited different modes of shape deformation under near-infrared laser irradiation depending on the irradiation direction.

This study concerns hydrogels obtained from poly(oxazolines) bearing charged groups and their effect on the loading and release of guest molecules.

Zwitterionic hydrogels, as highly hydrated and soft materials, have been considered as promising materials for wound dressing, due to their unique antifouling and mechanical properties.

This work investigates neocartilage formation in bovine and porcine gelatin methacryloyl-based hydrogels photocrosslinked using ultraviolet or visible light photoinitiator systems.

3D cell printing using pdECM bioink can recapitulate pancreatic tissue specific microenvironmental niche that can induce higher insulins production by islets.

Supramolecular chemistry has enabled the design of tunable biomaterials that mimic the dynamic and viscoelastic characteristics of the extracellular matrix.

A novel DOPA-functionalized chondroitin sulfate-based (CSD) bioadhesive hydrogel with excellent functionality and biocompatibility for internal medical applications.

This paper provides an easy synthetic strategy combined with straightforward tailoring of the physical properties and functionalities, such that optimal performance can be targeted for various applications of strong and tough supramolecular hydrogels.

Strong and tough RSF-based hydrogels that could be used as a strain sensor, a touch screen pen and an electronic skin were developed.

Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels are widely used for tissue regeneration.

Biomimetic hydrogels with multivalent host–guest interactions as reversible crosslinks provide not only energy storage capacity, but also energy dissipation capacity to the dually crosslinked networks.

A hydrogel-based wet adhesive with bioinspired microstructures can exhibit strong and reversible adhesion to wet and underwater surfaces.