Strong and tough hydrogels fabricated through molecular and structural engineering and their biomedical applications

IF 13.3 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL

Chemical Engineering Journal Pub Date : 2025-02-20 DOI:10.1016/j.cej.2025.160728

Zhiyuan Lu, Renwang Sheng, Wei Zhang, Jialin Chen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Hydrogels are ideal materials for biomedical applications owing to their unique characteristics including high-water content, excellent biocompatibility, and designability. Despite these advantages, conventional hydrogels display inherent deficiencies in mechanical robustness, which restrict their applications in the load-bearing medical contexts. This constraint has attracted much effort to improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels, particularly in terms of the balance between strength and toughness. Numerous strategies are emerging to strengthen and toughen hydrogels by constructing multiscale structures of hydrogels, among which molecular and structural engineering are two basic but significant methods. In this paper, we systematically review the strategies to fabricate strong and tough hydrogels from the perspective of molecular and structural engineering. Subsequently, we highlight key applications of strong and tough hydrogels in tissue regeneration, bioadhesives and soft robots. Lastly, we discuss the current challenges and future development in this field

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来源期刊

Chemical Engineering Journal 工程技术-工程：化工

CiteScore

21.70

自引率

9.30%

发文量

6781

审稿时长

2.4 months

期刊介绍： The Chemical Engineering Journal is an international research journal that invites contributions of original and novel fundamental research. It aims to provide an international platform for presenting original fundamental research, interpretative reviews, and discussions on new developments in chemical engineering. The journal welcomes papers that describe novel theory and its practical application, as well as those that demonstrate the transfer of techniques from other disciplines. It also welcomes reports on carefully conducted experimental work that is soundly interpreted. The main focus of the journal is on original and rigorous research results that have broad significance. The Catalysis section within the Chemical Engineering Journal focuses specifically on Experimental and Theoretical studies in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, molecular catalysis, and biocatalysis. These studies have industrial impact on various sectors such as chemicals, energy, materials, foods, healthcare, and environmental protection.