Hydrogel Films: Versatile Solutions for Medical and Food Applications

Hydrogel films play a significant role in active wound dressings which are considered to be maintaining the humid and moist condition near to the wet environment for faster healing. Additionally, they may be loaded with drugs or growth factors for sustained release to assist in chronic wound, burn and other skin disease treatment. Hydrogel films are employed in the field of tissue engineering, where scaffolds are required to allow cells to adhere, proliferate, and then differentiate, aiding in the formation of more complex tissues.

Hydrogel films with porous structures facilitate encapsulation and controlled release of drug compositions. This characteristic allows long-term and site-specific medication, which keeps the time of dosing low and side effects to a minimum. Similarly, hydrogel films may be designed that will respond specifically to pH or temperature changes to release drugs only in certain environments in the body.

A vast number of natural and synthetic polymers can be used to create hydrogel films leading to a large range in the properties of the materials. Such flexibility can be easily tuned to customize the hydrogel films for specific applications: mechanical strength for load-bearing applications or optical clarity for sensor applications. Finally, controlling the cross-linking density and polymer composition, we enable the control over swelling behavior, degradation rates, and overall film properties.