The cover image is based on the article Editorial: Celebrating 50 Years of Macromolecular Chemistry and Polymer Research at the University of Bayreuth by Andre Gröschel et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20250928
The cover image is based on the article Editorial: Celebrating 50 Years of Macromolecular Chemistry and Polymer Research at the University of Bayreuth by Andre Gröschel et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20250928
Wound healing is a dynamic and continuous process. Hydrogels, as three-dimensional polymeric networks, have emerged as versatile platforms for tissue repair due to their tunable mechanical properties, environmental responsiveness, and diverse application forms. Despite extensive research, the mechanisms by which hydrogel properties regulate cellular interactions and tissue regeneration remain poorly understood. While hydrogels have demonstrated good biocompatibility in animal models, further research is needed to translate these findings to human chronic wound healing. Existing reviews largely focus on material characteristics or single bioactive agents, with limited discussion of integrated multifunctional design strategies. Recent studies demonstrate that diversified hydrogel designs and functionalities can effectively enhance wound healing, including accelerated healing and disease-specific applications. This review systematically summarizes these advances, emphasizing the relationships between hydrogel properties, their functional roles in tissue repair, and their application across pathological contexts, providing insights to guide the rational design and clinical translation of next-generation hydrogel-based wound dressings.
Highly porous polylactic acid (PLA) electrospun fibrous membranes loaded with thyme oleoresin (TOR) (0–20 wt%) were fabricated via electrospinning using a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) mechanism for active food packaging. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed uniform, bead-free fibers with high surface porosity across all samples. Among different membranes, the PLA/TOR 15% membrane showed comparatively superior mechanical strength, thermal stability, surface hydrophobicity, and water vapor barrier properties. Antioxidant evaluation using the DPPH assay confirmed strong activity, with 20% TOR-loaded membranes showing the highest scavenging (93% ± 2.7%). Antibacterial analysis revealed selective activity; no inhibition against Escherichia coli , while increasing TOR content enhanced inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus . The PLA/TOR 15% membrane was further evaluated for meat preservation over 15 days, assessing quality parameters such as color, pH, peroxide value (PV), free fatty acid (FFA) content, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). These results demonstrated that the PLA/TOR membrane effectively delayed lipid peroxidation, thereby extending the shelf life of meat, highlighting its potential for active food packaging applications.
Rapid industrialization has resulted in the discharge of significant amounts of dye-contaminated wastewater, raising serious environmental concerns. Addressing this, the current study focuses on developing eco-friendly, rationally designed alginate-based composite hydrogel beads (ACHBs) for the efficient removal of both cationic (methylene blue, MB) and anionic (Congo red, CR) dyes from aqueous solutions. The ACHBs were synthesized and thoroughly characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM–EDX, BET, TGA, and XPS analyses to confirm their structure and composition. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the dye removal efficiency under varying conditions including adsorbent dosage, dye concentration, contact time, pH, and temperature. Optimal adsorption capacities reached 47.8 mg g−1 for MB at pH 7.0 and 32.5 mg g−1 for CR at pH 4.5 with 50 mg of adsorbent and 90 min contact time. The incorporation and crosslinking of the composite components with Zr4+ ions provided the ACHBs with mechanical integrity and enhanced performance. Distinct mechanisms facilitated the simultaneous removal: MB was primarily adsorbed by electrostatic attraction, while CR was captured via host–guest inclusion within beta-cyclodextrin. The adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous, and the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order models fit the data well. Regeneration studies confirmed the material's reusability for multiple cycles, demonstrating promise for sustainable water treatment.
The strength and hydrophilicity of nanofiber materials for tissue engineering have always been a significant challenge. This paper presents the design and preparation of PLA&Gel/PHBV core–sheath nanofibers that combine strength and super hydrophilicity using electrospinning technology. Compared to the original materials, the addition of gelatin simultaneously enhances both the strength and hydrophilicity of the materials, with the mechanical and hydrophilic properties of PLA&20 wt%Gel/PHBV nanofibers reaching optimal values of 7.45 MPa and 2.2°, respectively. The increase in strength is attributed to the entanglement effect caused by the gelatin molecular chains, which hinders the relative sliding of the molecular chains. The enhancement in hydrophilicity is due to the introduction of a large number of hydrophilic groups from Gel, improving the material's hydrophilicity. Additionally, the polar groups in gelatin and the emergence of a network pore structure significantly increase the material's water absorption rate. This work provides new insights into the design and preparation of nanofiber materials.
The experimental results showed that the limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of the THPON3-THPC-treated cotton fabric increased significantly (by up to 32.5%), and the length of damage in the vertical burning test was reduced to 8.1 cm with no afterflame. Cone calorimeter tests revealed a significant reduction in combustion efficiency, with the peak heat release rate (PHRR) decreasing from 283.1 to 112.9 kW/m2 and the total heat release (THR) decreasing from 21.8 to 4.6 MJ/m2. Compared to the traditional Proban ammonia curing process, THPON3-THPC demonstrated greater flame-retardant effectiveness. This treatment improved both the comfort and environmental sustainability of the flame-retardant cotton fabric. Furthermore, experimental results showed that THPON3 achieved formaldehyde removal rates of 92.5% (E2 grade) and 68.3% (NAF grade) from plywood, outperforming urea and demonstrating significant formaldehyde removal capabilities. As an efficient formaldehyde scavenger, THPON3 significantly inhibited and delayed the release of formaldehyde from plywood. Additionally, cytotoxicity tests showed that THPON3 exhibited no significant toxicity to Hacat and BEAS-2B cells at a concentration of 800 μM, indicating a very low risk to human health in the event of accidental ingestion or inhalation. These findings are important for the application of THPON3 in flame-retardant and residential building materials.
Technologies for formation of polymer materials with a given spatial distribution of properties are widely in demand in both scientific and industry applications. Various chemical or physical effects are used to control the formation of polymers and influence their properties, enabling the creation of materials with controlled property gradients. Among the physical effects the use of centrifugal field is one of the most effective ways. Usually it is believed that this mechanism is able to form only a monotonous distribution of properties in the radial direction. In our work, the possibility of obtaining a non-monotonic distribution of optical and mechanical polymer properties during polymerization in centrifuge is demonstrated by the example of acrylamide polymer. The use of interferometry in real-time visualization of the polymerization process allowed us to demonstrate a key role of convective motion in the final distribution of polymer properties. The magnitude of the refractive index inhomogeneity turned out to be on the order of 10−3. We propose a physical mechanism responsible for the formation of a non-monotonic distribution of polymer properties based on the competition of several effects at once: free convection, convection in a porous medium, and edge effects.
Polymers with N-oxide groups find applications in the biomedical field because they are highly hydrated in water, are considered to be nontoxic, and have stealth properties. Additional antimicrobial activity of polymeric N-oxides has also been reported, and it is currently unclear if this activity is a general feature of polymeric N-oxides or a special property of selected derivatives. N-Oxides are often prepared by oxidation of tertiary amines with hydrogen peroxide, which is notoriously difficult to remove from the resulting polymeric N-oxides. This study analyzes the role of residual oxidant in polymeric N-oxides for antimicrobial activity. Sensitive quantification reveals a significant release of hydrogen peroxide from oxidized polymers in solution and grafted on polyethylene or polyamide. The release of hydrogen peroxide from these polymers can lead to concentrations exceeding the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli . It can thus compromise microbiological assays. Rigorous removal of hydrogen peroxide leads to polymeric N-oxides with no antibacterial activity. Antibacterial effects of polymeric N-oxides against planktonic bacteria are primarily attributed to residual hydrogen peroxide, rather than to the intrinsic activity of the N-oxide functionality. Poly(N-oxide)-modified surfaces are therefore inert low-fouling materials with tunable, transient antibacterial functionality through controlled hydrogen peroxide release.
In this study, we investigate temperature/pH/redox-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide/N-tert-butylacrylamide/N-acrylamido-L-phenylalanine) (P(NIPA/TBA/Aphe)) nanogels cross-linked by N,N′-bis(acryloyl)cystam (BAC) using emulsion precipitation polymerization. The nanogels, denoted as PNTA-BAC, are characterized through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), infrared spectroscopy (IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The hydrogel photonic crystals self-assembled by the PNTA-BAC nanogels demonstrate a stable structural color due to in situ gelation even as the temperature is increased up to the phase transition temperature (Tp) of the nanogels. A large steric hindrance of N-tert-butyl of the TBA side group dramatically slows down the shrinkage of the PNTA-BAC nanogels, leading to the in situ gelation of the hydrogel photonic crystals. Moreover, the synergies of large steric hindrance of the benzene ring and the strongly absorbing water of the carboxyl group of the side groups of the nanogels maintain the structural color of the hydrogel photonic crystals above Tp. When loaded with the drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), the nanogels exhibit degradability in the strong reducing agent 1,4-dithiothreitol (DTT). Cell toxicity is evaluated using mouse endothelial cells cultured with different concentrations of the nanogel solution. The results indicate that the biodegradable hydrogel photonic crystals composed of the PNTA-BAC nanogels have good biocompatibility, providing a potential nano-platform for drug delivery systems.
In this study, chitosan nanoparticles loaded with laurel essential oil ( Laurus nobilis L.) were produced using the electrospraying method, and the effects of various process parameters were investigated. The morphological, chemical, thermal, and antioxidant properties of the nanoparticles were comprehensively characterized. The addition of laurel essential oil to the solutions resulted in a decrease in electrical conductivity and an increase in viscosity, which led to an increase in particle diameters. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) images revealed that the particle morphologies were spherical, with average diameters between 105 and 155 nm. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses confirmed the physical encapsulation of laurel essential oil within the chitosan matrix, while thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses revealed an increase in the thermal stability of the laurel essential oil-loaded nanoparticles. In antioxidant activity analyses, 75% essential oil-loaded nanoparticles exhibited significantly higher DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) (6394.34 μmol TE/g dm) and ABTS (2,2′-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) (7289.87 μmol TE/g dm) radical scavenging capacities compared to the blank nanoparticles (p < 0.05). The phenolic content also increased proportionally with the essential oil concentration. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the successful encapsulation of laurel essential oil within chitosan nanoparticles. Thus, these findings support potential applications as food preservatives.
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