ABSTRACT
Hydrogels, which belong to a class of crosslinked polymeric
materials, are good examples of a continuous technological
development, which improves the society’s benefits and, at same
time, motivates and instigates researchers to go beyond the
boundaries of knowledge. After the work of Wichterle published
in 1960s [171], hydrogels developed from simply inert to complex
stimuli-responsive (those that show noticeable change in their
properties, such as volume, with environmental-pH, ionic strength,
temperature, magnetic field, specific molecules, light, etc.—stimulus
variation) materials presenting great prospective in a wide range
of applications such tissue engineering [2], soil conditioning[64],
wound dressing[38], sensors [15], contact lenses [110], drug
delivery systems [132], separation science [43], hygienic products
[67], among others. More than 30,000 papers (published in the last
50 years, being ca. 80% in the last decade) can be found by searching
at JCR R© (Journal of Citation Reports) database under the topic “hydrogel.” This demonstrates the importance, in both academic and
technologic points of view, of such kind of material.
