History, Classification, Properties and Application of Hydrogels: An Overview

From Supramolecular Hydrogels to Multifunctional Carriers for Biologically Active Substances

“…Hydrogels have been extensively investigated for their application as carriers for active substance delivery systems [ 5 , 66 , 67 , 68 ]. These materials have attracted considerable attention, particularly in solutions proposed for the controlled release of drugs, as bioadhesive implements, or as carriers of therapeutic agents to the target sites.…”

A Self-Degradable Hydrogel Sensor for a Nerve Agent Tabun Surrogate Through a Self-Propagating Cascade

“…Indeed, we visually confirmed that the membrane decomposition time varies contingent on the thickness of the hydrogel (Figure 3) because the thicker the membranes, the longer it took for the gels to dissolve and release the red solution containing R6G into the bottom vial. Several factors must influence this phenomenon, each of which could be tuned for a specific application: (1) the degradation rate of the hydrogel induced by DCNP is dependent upon pH, (2) the weight of the top solution, and (3) the surface tension of the solvent (water in our case) that impedes the solution from passing through the membrane.…”

“…Hydrogels do not dissolve in an aqueous environment; instead they swell and contain large amounts of water. 1,2 Because of these characteristics, hydrogels are flexible enough to act like natural tissues. In addition, it is feasible to control the mechanical integrity, porosity, and degradation properties of hydrogels by adjusting parameters such as synthesis conditions, types of polymers used in the gel, molecular weight (MW), and crosslinking density.…”

Synthesis and Hydrogelation of Star-Shaped Graft Copolypetides with Asymmetric Topology

“…Moreover, with tunable mechanical properties, hydrogels have drawn significant attention to investigate their applications in biomedical fields such as wound dressing, drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Hydrogel was defined first time by Bemmelen in 1894, and its first application was reported in biomedical fields by Wichterle and Lim in 1960 [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Amongst all types of hydrogels, peptide-based hydrogels have self-assembly ability for hydrogel formation through hydrogen bonding, aromatic (cation-π, π-π), and hydrophobic/hydrophilic interactions [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”