With the sharp increase in population and modernization of society, environmental pollution resulting from petroleum hydrocarbons has increased, resulting in an urgent need for remediation. Petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria are ubiquitous in nature and can utilize these compounds as sources of carbon and energy. Bacteria displaying such capabilities are often exploited for the bioremediation of petroleum oil-contaminated environments. Recently, microbial remediation technology has developed rapidly and achieved major gains. However, this technology is not omnipotent. It is affected by many environmental factors that hinder its practical application, limiting the large-scale application of the technology. This paper provides an overview of the recent literature referring to the usage of bacteria as biodegraders, discusses barriers regarding the implementation of this microbial technology, and provides suggestions for further developments.

3D printing of hydrogels with high intrinsic mechanical performance has significant applications in many fields yet has been proven to be a fundamental challenge. Here, 3D printing of ultrahigh strength hydrogels is achieved by constructing cross-linkingDPC networks based on poly­(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan (CS). The hybrid ink with moderate rheology for direct ink writing is employed to manufacture complex hydrogel structures, first. Then, the cyclic freezing–thawing followed by sodium citrate solution soaking realize the first network of PVA crystallization and the second one of CS ionic interaction between amino and carboxyl groups. The optimized DPC hydrogel displays a tensile strength of 12.71 ± 1.32 MPa at a strain of 302.27 ± 15.70%, Young’s modulus of 14.01 ± 1.35 MPa, and work of extension at fracture W ext of 22.10 ± 2.36 MJ m–3 because of the dominant energy dissipation of the stiff CS ionic network. Moreover, the tearing test supports that this DPC hydrogel possesses a high toughness of 9.92 ± 1.05 kJ m–2. This protocol can readily realize not only the hydrogel lattice, honeycomb, and spring, but also secondary-shaping hydrogel objects including whale, octopus, and butterfly via a local DPC strategy. Integrating the advanced 3D-printing technique with high-performance hydrogels uncovers a feasible strategy to broad practical applications in engineering, intelligent machine, and soft robotics.

The 3D printing of physically crosslinked hydrogel architectures with high strength and swelling resistance is achieved with biocompatible PVA and natural κ-carrageenan hybrid inks.

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The advances in 3D printing of bioinspired textured surfaces with superamphiphobicity are summarized.

Thermo-sensitive gel exhibits great potential industrial application. It has been widely used in tissue repair, drug release and water purification for its property of phase transition in response to external stimuli, reusability and biocompatibility. In this study, a novel lignin-based thermo-sensitive gel was synthesized with alkali lignin by two steps. Firstly, phenolated lignin (PPAL) was synthesized with purified alkali lignin (PAL) catalyzed by sulfuric acid. Subsequently, thermo-sensitive gel was achieved by thermal polymerization of phenolated alkali lignin and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm). Furthermore, the prepared hydrogels were characterized in terms of thermal behavior, interior morphology and their swelling behavior. Compared with PAL-based gel, the obtained PPAL-based gel exhibits a higher crosslinking density and lower critical solution temperature (LCST) due to the increase of reaction site and smaller space volume of the hydrophobic side groups grafted on NIPAAm. TGA data revealed that thermal stability of gel was enhanced (50% weight loss at ~380 °C) by using lignin as precursor. SEM images showed that a more regular interior morphology, better compressive strength was also found (PPAL0.05, 11.15 KPa). Furthermore, the swelling ratio of PPAL-based gel was lower than that of PAL-based gel due to its more complex structure.