Preparation, properties, and applications of bio-based antibacterial hydrogels: A review

Bacterial resistance caused by the abuse of antibiotics has become a major threat to global public health, which urgently requires the development of new antibacterial materials. Traditional antimicrobial materials can inhibit bacterial proliferation to some extent. Unfortunately, Traditional antibacterial materials require complex artificial modification and synthesis, which leads to potential difficulties in preparation, side effects, and clinical translation. Bio-based antibacterial hydrogels (BAHs), as natural antibacterial alternatives, are derived from renewable resources such as chitosan, cellulose, and alginate. Compared to conventional hydrogels, BAHs exhibit superior biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ease of functionalization. Hence, BAHs have shown broad application prospects in fields such as wound dressings and biomedicine. The review systematically summarizes the preparation strategies (physical cross-linking, chemical cross-linking, and graft polymerization techniques) of BAHs based on natural polymers (chitosan, cellulose, starch, protein, etc.). Moreover, the paper comprehensively reviews the properties (mechanical, rheological, injectable and self-healing, degradability, etc.) of BAHs and their applications in various fields, including wound dressings, drug delivery, packaging materials, adsorption materials, tissue engineering, biosensing, etc. This article aims to deepen the understanding of BAHs, optimize their synthesis strategies, and establish the important position of BAHs as the frontier platform for biomedical applications. • The preparation strategies of BAHs based on natural polymers are systematically summarized. • The properties of BAHs and their applications in various fields are reviewed. • BAHs show excellent antibacterial activity.