# Formulating Smart All‐in‐One Chitosan Hydrogel for High Performance Wound Dressing

## TL;DR

This paper develops a smart chitosan-based hydrogel with antibacterial properties and temperature responsiveness, suitable for high-performance wound dressings.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel thermosensitive chitosan hydrogel with AgNPs for improved wound healing.

## Key findings

- The hydrogel has a swelling ratio of 358.86 ± 23.56% and degrades 86.02 ± 2.82% in 21 days.
- It shows excellent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli.
- The material exhibits thermal responsiveness and accelerates wound healing in rats.

## Abstract

The poor mechanical and film formation properties of chitosan hydrogel limit its application as a wound dressing. To solve this shortcoming, chitosan‐graft‐poly(N‐isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and crosslinked with polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrollidone (PVA/PVP) blend polymer is designed to form the thermosensitive hydrogel. After that, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), synthesized by the co‐reduction method, are added into the chitosan hydrogel network to provide better antibacterial ability. When the temperature is above 32 °C, the hydrogel showed a decrease in particle size and transmittance, which proved that it is a thermal responsive material. Chitosan hydrogels are evaluated for their thermal properties, mechanical properties, swelling effects, antibacterial properties, and wound healing ability in rats. The results show that the hydrogel has a large number of intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonds and a porous 3D network structure. The swelling ratio is 358.86 ± 23.56% and the degradation ratio is 86.02 ± 2.82% at 21 days. It also has excellent antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and a much faster wound recovery ability. Therefore, a chitosan hydrogel with excellent physical properties is formulated in this study and has great potential as a smart all‐in‐one wound dressing for accelerating wound healing.

An innovative approach to fabricating a thermosensitive, highly swelling, degradable, and antibacterial hydrogel composed of a chitosan‐g‐NIPAAm/PVA/PVP copolymer, integrated with AgNPs, for use in wound dressing applications. The hydrogel demonstrates enhanced performance, accelerating the wound healing process.