Owing to unique physiochemical and biological properties as well as the ability to be combined with a wide variety of materials for both biocompatibility and hydrophilia, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is an excellent choice as a carrier. Loading Chlorine dioxide (ClO 2 ) into biodegradable carrier for its good disinfection performance and high safety factors has attracted significantattention. Therefore, in this study, we used ClO 2 as a model drug, and a sustained-ClO 2 -gas-release gel was developed from degradable materials, such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and β-cyclodextrin (βCD), through a simple and benign crosslinking strategy. Notably, the gel had sustained-release property in a wide temperature range of 4–35 ℃ and released ClO 2 gas effectively for more than 30 days. Furthermore, a loss factor was proposed based on the incomplete release of the drug in the sustained release process to a chieve a good fit with the gas diffusion process. A new diffusion model was designed based on the Korsmeyer–Peppas model, and an excellent fit was obtained. This sustained-ClO 2 -gas-release gel provides theoretical and technical guidance for the development of sustained-disinfectant-release agents for use in space and offers new insights into the sustained release model of skeleton-soluble hydrogels. Graphical abstract Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10570-023-05070-6.

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