The design, mechanism and biomedical application of self-healing hydrogels

Hydrogels are promising materials with outstanding characteristics such as tunable and reversible physical/chemical properties, stimuli-responsiveness, biomimetic, and biocompatibility. However, the structural and functional integrity of the hydrogels can be compromised by external mechanical forces or chemical erosion when used, especially in sophisticated in vivo environment. To address this problem, self-healing hydrogels which possess the intrinsic ability of self-repair have been developed to adapt to destructive factors. In this review, we focused on the current advances made in self-healing hydrogels. First, the testing methods for self-healing hydrogels were summarized. Then, we looked into the designing strategies of self-healing hydrogels and illustrated the self-healing mechanism. What’s more, the biomedical application of self-healing hydrogels in vivo was discussed.