Preparation and Applications of Assembled Hydrogels
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Processing and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2026 | Viewed by 16
Special Issue Editor
Interests: supramolecular hydrogels; biomaterials; peptide self-assembly; peptide crystallization; structure–property relationship; biomedical materials; optoelectronic devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Assembled Hydrogels have attracted great interest due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability for biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biosensing. Hydrogel networks can be formed by supramolecular interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, van der Waals forces, and electrostatic interactions). Therefore, the assembled hydrogels could exhibit smart responsiveness through materials design in the presence of stimulus such as pH, light, redox agents, and enzymes. There are different characterization techniques to study the assembly mechanism and structure–property relationship of hydrogels, facilitating the design of assembled hydrogels with desirable properties.
Compared to single component hydrogels, multiple components hydrogels formed by supramolecular assembly usually show multiple functions and meet the requirement for biomedical applications. Bioactive agents play important roles for bio-applications, which could be incorporated into the hydrogels through supramolecular assembly. By tuning the supramolecular interactions, different properties of assembled hydrogels are obtained. This Special Issue aims to collect studies on the recent advances of assembled hydrogels for biomedical and nanotechnological applications. This topic mainly focuses on the design and preparation of assembled hydrogels as well as their various applications.
Prof. Dr. Wei Ji
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- hydrogel
- supramolecular assembly
- nanostructure
- stimuli-responsiveness
- tissue engineering
- drug delivery
- biosensor
- biomedical device
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