Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, research on the creation, investigation, and application of composite hydrogels with different structures and compositions is actively developing due to the unique physicochemical (large specific surface area, porosity, etc.) and functional (optical, mechanical, deformation strength, a large degree of swelling in water and aqueous solutions, etc.) properties of these materials. These properties determine a wide range of applications, from technical fields (sorbents, gas separation, ion-exchange membranes, etc.) to the food industry (food structurizers) and medicine (carriers of medicines for targeted delivery). Many hydrogels are analogues of natural systems and may be considered as model systems for basic research in chemistry, medicine, biotechnology, and engineering. The so-called “smart” or intelligent composite hydrogels, which are able to respond to small changes in the external environment in a pre-programmed way, are of particular interest. This opens up new possibilities for the use of composite hydrogels with such unusual properties in regenerative medicine, antimicrobial therapy, robotics, etc. Success in the development of this field can only be achieved through the joint efforts of specialists in various areas.

We invite researchers to contribute to the Special Issue on New Composite Hydrogels. This Special Issue is intended to reveal the latest achievements in synthesis technology, modern investigation methods and techniques, and applications of composite hydrogels.

 The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Synthesis of composite hydrogels with different compositions;

- Characterization of composite hydrogels and their components by diffraction, small-angle scattering, spectroscopic, microscopic, and other advanced techniques;

- Properties and their correlation with composition and structure of composite hydrogels and their components;

- “Smart” composite hydrogels and management of their properties;

- Modern methods for modeling and calculation of the composition and structure of composite hydrogels;

- Application of composite hydrogels in available or completely new fields.

Prof. Galina M. Kuz'micheva
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Hydrogels
• intelligent materials
• composition
• structure
• properties
• characterization methods
• new applications