Hydrogels in Action: Self-Assembly, Responsivity and Sensing

Dear Colleagues,

Even structurally and functionally relatively simple hydrogels and hydrogel particle systems are scientifically fascinating materials, and are of key importance in numerous applications, including drug delivery, tissue engineering, advanced oil recovery, and chromatography.

This Special Issue on “Hydrogels in Action: Self-Assembly, Responsivity and Sensing” is dedicated to recent developments in the field of hydrogels where interesting dynamical, "active" aspects of hydrogel synthesis and behavior are studied and exploited. The use of phase separation processes and molecular self-assembly in the synthesis of advanced hydrogel materials exploits the complex dynamics of these mechanisms to create hydrogels with complex morphologies, tunable by the processing conditions and the molecular building blocks. Such methods of controlling hydrogel morphology can become even more powerful when combined with droplet-based microfluidic systems, which enable precise, repeatable processing conditions during the formation of each individual hydrogel particle.

Even “simple”, homogeneously structured hydrogel particle systems can exhibit a rich behavior in terms of their response to external stimuli. In response to changes in pH, temperature, light, ionic concentration, or the concentration of other solutes such as polymers dissolved in the background liquid, these systems exhibit a complex and often surprising swelling and de-swelling behavior. Hydrogels and hydrogel particles with more complex, hierarchical morphologies enabled by phase separation or self-assembly can be created with targeted, improved responsivity, which can be exploited in sensing applications.

We welcome the submission of studies covering different aspects of this general theme, using experiments and/or theory.

Dr. Hans Wyss
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.