Gels and hydrogels articles from across Nature Portfolio

It is useful to be able to equip marine animals with sensors, but it can be challenging to attach these to soft marine organisms. Here, the authors use an adhesive hydrogel to achieve rapid attachment of sensors to marine life including jellyfish, squid and lobster.

The preparation of composite hydrogels can allow for mechanical properties to be enhanced, and hierarchical structures can be effective. Here, the authors report improved mechanical properties by the addition of ceramic platelets to an organohydrogel in direct ink writing.

Photo-crosslinking polymerization facilitates precise control of hydrogel formation for various applications including tissue engineering, but most existing photo-crosslinking methods fail to achieve deep-tissue penetration, especially within bone structures. Here the authors report a strategy of low-dose X-ray-activated polymerization that enables deep-tissue hydrogel formation.

As amorphous solids, glasses and gels are similar, but the origins of their different elastic properties are unclear. Simulations now suggest differing free-energy-minimizing pathways: structural ordering for glasses and interface reduction for gels.

Boroxines, resulting from the reversible dehydration of boronic acids, have been incorporated as structural units into functional materials and molecular assemblies, but their applicability is restricted to non-aqueous environments owing to their inherent water instability. Now, a boroxine structure spontaneously formed from the 2-hydroxyphenylboronic acid dimer enables water-compatible dynamic B–O covalent bonds, expanding their future applicability.

The production of conventional meat contributes to climate change and uses up around 70% of available arable land. Cultured meat is emerging as a potential solution, but presently can be only produced at the pilot scale. Biofabrication technologies developed for biomedical applications could be leveraged to introduce automation and standardization in the production of cultured meat, accelerating its path to market.

An article in Advanced Healthcare Materials reports a 4D-printed hydrogel dressing that shrinks at body temperature and promotes healing in chronic diabetic wounds.

Incorporating additives that contain hydrogen-bonding nanochannels creates nanoconfined polymer gels that are highly stretchable, elastic and insensitive to notch propagation.

Elastic microphase separation controls the characteristic mesoscopic length scale of bulk bicontinuous materials.

An approach to analyse the deformation behaviour of polymer networks provides an enhanced set of structural information, improving our understanding of the elasticity of soft materials.