Borax mediated synthesis of a biocompatible self-healing hydrogel using dialdehyde carboxymethyl cellulose-dextrin and gelatin

The hydrogels with self-healing properties have high potential applications in the biomedical field. Generally, the imine bonds are used as the dynamic covalent bonding in the self-healing hydrogels and hydrogen bonding is used for providing additional strength to self-healing hydrogels. In the presented work, Gelatin, dialdehyde dextrin, and dialdehyde Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) based hydrogels were prepared which are biocompatible and biodegradable and hence, can be used in biomedical field. Borax and glutaraldehyde were used as binding agent and cross-linker, respectively. The dynamic imide bond formed between gelatin-dialdehyde dextrin, gelatin-dialdehyde CMC, and gelatin-glutaraldehyde were responsible for self-healing ability of the prepared hydrogel. The rheological studies were also carried out which showed that as a consequence of lower viscosity the hydrogels can show injectable properties. The sample was also found to be blood compatible, which further highlights its biomedical importance.