Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrogels

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Materials (IF: 3.748) is dedicated to recent advances in hydrogel-based materials synthesis and characterization. Natural and synthetic hydrogel-based materials are widely used for biomedical applications such as regenerative medicine, drug delivery, drug screening, tissue engineering, and biosensors. They also contribute to non-medical areas like sensing, anti-marine-creature fouling, energy storage, and water technology. The diversity of their applications still inspires research on the engineering of novel hydrogel materials today. New methods for the synthesis of hydrogels are highly desirable. These promising materials must be well-characterized concerning physical (mechanics, rheology, swelling, transparency, diffusion) and chemical (pH- or temperature-induced degradation, toxicity, crosslinking).

The topics of interest for this Special Issue on the Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrogels 

include, but are not limited to:

• Hydrogels for tissue engineering;
• Hydrogels for cancer therapy;
• Hydrogel drug release mechanisms;
• Hydrogels for 3D bioprinting;
• Smart hydrogels;
• Hybrid hydrogels synthesis;
• Hydrogels rheology;
• Hydrogels modifications and properties;
• Mathematical modeling of hydrogels;
• Diffusion in hydrogels;
• Degradable hydrogels;
• Swelling of hydrogels.

Considering your distinguished contribution to this substantial research field, we cordially invite you to submit an article to this Special Issue. Full research papers, communications, and review articles are welcome.

Dr. Joanna Zemla
Dr. Sara Metwally
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 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. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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.