Smart Hydrogels: From Rational Design to Applications (2nd Edition)
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Processing and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 November 2024) | Viewed by 1219
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hydrogels; self-assembly; peptide nanostructures; nanomaterials; system chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biomaterials; synthetic polymers; natural polymers; hydrogels; implantology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue on “Smart Hydrogels: From Rational Design to Applications” focuses on the fundamental aspects of and recent developments in the rational design, synthesis, characterization, self-assembly mechanism, and applications of hydrogels in the chemical and biological field.
Smart hydrogels are an important class of soft materials with a three-dimensional polymer network in which a large amount of water is entrapped. Interestingly, in the presence of physical stimuli such as heat, light, electric field, and magnetic field, and chemical stimuli such as pH, enzymes, redox, ions, etc., these smart hydrogels change their physiochemical properties, such as transparency or color, phase behavior, conductivity, and shape or rheological properties. In recent decades, smart hydrogels have been at the forefront of advanced materials because of their outstanding applications in sensors, programmable drug delivery, actuators, and tissue engineering. Smart hydrogels can be prepared by the rational design of appropriate peptide sequences, composite material with the help of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, biologically suitable polymers, collagen-like peptide (CLP), etc. In addition, the self-assembly propensity of these smart hydrogels to form nanoscale architecture plays an important role in biomedical applications.
It is incredibly important to cover all aspects of smart hydrogels in one Issue, and this Special Issue will cover a few representative examples, also including review articles of recent findings (preferably within the last 5 years) outlining the progress made in this advanced field with the aim of aiding scientists worldwide. Papers focusing on computational science related to smart hydrogels are also welcomed in this Special Issue.
Dr. Bapan Pramanik
Dr. Lucy Vojtová
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- peptides
- polymers
- composite materials
- smart hydrogels
- stimuli-responsive
- self-assembly
- rheological behavior
- drug delivery
- tissue engineering
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