Polysaccharide is an abundant and reproducible natural material that is biocompatible and biodegradable. Polysaccharide and its derivatives also possess distinctive properties such as hydrophilicity, mechanical stability, as well as tunable functionality. Polysaccharide‐based hydrogels can be constructed via the physical and/or chemical crosslinking of polysaccharide derivatives with different functional molecules, as porous network structures or nanofibrillar structures. This review discusses the biomedical applications of polysaccharide‐based hydrogels containing native polysaccharides, polysaccharide derivatives, and polysaccharide‐composite hydrogels. Recent works on the fabrication, physical properties, advanced engineering, biomedical applications of cellulose‐, chitosan‐, alginate‐, and starch‐based hydrogels are also elaborated. Such porous swelling scaffolds exhibit great advantages at the interface of a negative pressure system such as wound dressing. In addition, the authors also discuss and summarize the exemplary research works of these hydrogels in the applications of drug release, wound dressing, and tissue engineering. Finally, challenges and future perspectives about the development of polysaccharide‐based hydrogels are discussed.
Ice accumulation poses a series of severe issues in daily life. Inspired by the nature, superwettability surfaces have attracted great interests from fundamental research to anti-icing and ice-phobic applications. Here, recently published literature about the mechanism of ice prevention is reviewed, with a focus on the anti-icing and ice-phobic mechanisms, encompassing the behavior of condensate microdrops on the surface, wetting, ice nucleation, and freezing. Then, a detailed account of the innovative fabrication and fundamental research of anti-icing materials with special wettability is summarized with a focus on recent progresses including low-surface energy coatings and liquid-infused layered coatings. Finally, special attention is paid to a discussion about advantages and disadvantages of the technologies, as well as factors that affect the anti-icing and ice-phobic efficiency. Outlooks and the challenges for future development of the anti-icing and ice-phobic technology are presented and discussed.
This work reviews the recent progress of multifunctional conductive hydrogels from the aspects of classifications, properties and applications, and the current challenges and the future development strategies are discussed.
Self-roughened and biodegradable superhydrophobic fabrics with solar-induced self-healing property are constructed for versatile and efficient oil–water separation.
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