#hydrogels

(Nanowerk News) Solar-driven desalination is a promising way to produce freshwater sustainably using sunlight. However, existing systems struggle when desalinating oily seawater because oil fouls their specialized membranes. Now, researchers from Korea and Singapore have collaboratively developed a multifunctional hydrogel membrane that combines oil removal with solar-powered desalination. The membrane achieved over 99.99% oil rejection while maintaining stable and efficient freshwater production, demonstrating a promising strategy for treating real-world oily seawater. As the world’s population grows and industry expands, many countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are facing a freshwater scarcity crisis. Finding sustainable ways to produce clean water has become an urgent priority, and solar desalination may be one of the most promising routes available. By using sunlight to evaporate and purify seawater, this technology could serve as an efficient source of freshwater in areas facing water shortages.

Access to clean water is being strained as the human population increases and contamination impacts freshwater sources. Devices currently in development that clean up dirty water using sunlight can only produce up to a few gallons of water each day. But now, researchers in ACS Central Science report how loofah sponges inspired a sunlight-powered porous hydrogel that could potentially purify enough water to satisfy someone's daily needs—even when it's cloudy.

Previously, researchers have suggested that sunlight-driven evaporation could be a low-energy way to purify water, but this approach doesn't work well when it's cloudy. One solution could be temperature-responsive hydrogels, specifically poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm), that switch from absorbing water at cooler temperatures to repelling it when heated. However, conventional PNIPAm gels can't generate clean water fast enough to meet people's daily needs because of their closed-off pores. Conversely, natural loofahs, which many people use to exfoliate in the shower, have large, open and interconnected pores. So, Rodney Priestley, Xiaohui Xu, and colleagues wanted to replicate the loofah's structure in a PNIPAm-based hydrogel, yielding a material that could rapidly absorb water at room temperature, and rapidly release purified water when heated by the sun's rays under bright or cloudy conditions.

Good Suspension

New method of culturing intestinal organoids in suspended basement membrane extract hydrogels enables their production to be scaled up

Read the published research paper here

Image from work by Julia Y. Co and colleagues

Complex in vitro Systems, Safety Assessment, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Scientific Reports, June 2023

“The method provides a way to catch microplastic particles of a size that the human eye cannot detect. These are particles with a diameter of only 100 nanometers.”

Tea compound boosts seaweed hydrogel strength fivefold, while tuning adhesion and breakdown

Could wound healing dressings adhere better, and could drug delivery patches become more sophisticated? A KAIST research team has developed a technology that leverages natural ingredients derived from plants to increase the strength of a seaweed-based hydrogel (a gel material that contains a large amount of water while maintaining its shape) by more than fivefold, while also controlling its adhesiveness and degradation rate. The research team, led by Professor Haeshin Lee of the Department of Chemistry, developed a new material design strategy that uses tannic acid—a type of polyphenol, which is a natural antioxidant abundant in tea and fruits—to enhance the mechanical strength and adhesiveness of seaweed-derived hydrogel and control its degradation rate.

Water Shield, Not Just a Barrier: How Hydrogels Are Outsmarting Biofouling in Medical Implants

Newswise — When a medical device is implanted, proteins instantly latch onto its surface—a process that triggers inflammation, immune rejection, blood clotting, and bacterial infections. Traditional anti-fouling coatings often degrade, lose effectiveness, or fail in the complex environment of the human body. Hydrogels, with their three-dimensional polymer networks and high water content, offer a natural advantage: they can hold water at their surface, creating a physical barrier that repels proteins before they can stick. Yet not all hydrogels are created equal—some hold water loosely, while others bind it with tenacious strength. Based on these challenges, the research team conducted an in-depth investigation into how different molecular designs influence hydration stability and anti-biofouling performance. A team from Tianjin University, has published (DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3585-x) a review in the Chinese Journal of Polymer Science. The article, available online since April 7, 2026, and in print from June 5, 2026, systematically classifies anti-biofouling hydrogels based on their hydration mechanisms and evaluates their biomedical applications—including vitreous substitutes, anti-adhesion barriers, diabetic wound dressings, and device coatings.

Super sponge can remove toxic dyes from industrial wastewater

Colors brighten our lives and help define countless items we use daily—from the vibrant clothes we wear to decorative paper and packaging materials. What adds different colors to these things? Dyes, which bind themselves to the structure of the material they are coloring. For example, methylene blue (MB) is a dye used to color paper, leather products, silk and wool, and is also employed as a diagnostic agent and in the rubber and cosmetic industries. But what happens after these dyes have served their purpose? According to a recent study, billions of tons of dye-containing wastewater enter water systems every year. Some 80% of such wastewater generated in low- and middle-income nations is used directly for irrigation or released untreated into water sources.