Avoiding wound infection and retaining an appropriate level of moisture around woundz are major challenges in wound care management. Therefore, designing hydrogels with desired antibacterial performance and good water‐maintaining ability is of particular significance to promote the development of wound dressing. Thus a series of hydrogels are prepared by crosslinking of Ag/graphene composites with acrylic acid and N,N′‐methylene bisacrylamide at different mass ratios. The antibacterial performance and accelerated wound‐healing ability of hydrogel are systematically evaluated with the aim of attaining a novel and effective wound dressing. The as‐prepared hydrogel with the optimal Ag to graphene mass ratio of 5:1 (Ag5G1) exhibits stronger antibacterial abilities than other hydrogels. Meanwhile, Ag5G1 hydrogel exhibits excellent biocompatibility, high swelling ratio, and good extensibility. More importantly, in vivo experiments indicate that Ag5G1 hydrogel can significantly accelerate the healing rate of artificial wounds in rats, and histological examination reveals that it helps to successfully reconstruct intact and thickened epidermis during 15 day of healing of impaired wounds. In one word, the present approach can shed new light on designing of antibacterial material like Ag/graphene composite hydrogel with promising applications in wound dressing.

No abstract

A novel ultrahydrophobic ultrathin film was prepared by stearic acid (STA) chemically adsorbed onto the polyethyleneimine (PEI) coated aluminum wafer. The formation and the structure of the films have been characterized by means of water contact angle measurement, ellipsometry, Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The static contact angle for water on the surface of this ultrathin organic film was measured to be as high as 166°. Apart from the hydrophobic STA monolayer, the needle-like surface nanostructures with enough roughness was found to be essential for the generation of ultrahydrophobicity. We suggest that a composite interface formed by the needle-like surface nanostructures, water droplet, and air trapped in the crevices is responsible for the superior water-repellent property.