Hydrogels: a journey from diapers to gene delivery

Hydrogels are the biomaterials comprising network of natural or synthetic polymers capable of absorbing large amount of water. Hydrogels are "Smart Gels" or "Intelligent Gels" which can be made to respond to the various environmental conditions like temperature, pH, magnetic/electric field, ionic strength, inflammation, external stress etc. There are numerous potential applications of hydrogels in modern day life ranging from a diaper to gene delivery. This review succinctly describes the classification, properties and preparation methods along with numerous diverse applications of hydrogels like agricultural hydrogels, hydrogel for drug delivery, sensing, dental adhesives, wound healing and tissue regeneration, diet aid and gastric retention and in tissue engineering etc. Hydrogels can be regarded as highly valuable biomaterials for human-beings.