An excellent antibacterial and high self-adhesive hydrogel can promote wound fully healing driven by its shrinkage...

The lacks of antibacterial properties, low adhesion and delayed wound healing of the hydrogel wound dressings limit their applications in wound treatment. To resolve these, a novel hydrogel composed of polydopamine (PDA), Ag and graphene oxide (GO) is fabricated for wound dressing via the chemical crosslinking of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (BIS). The prepared hydrogel containing PDA@Ag5GO1 (Ag5GO1 denotes the mass ratio between Ag and GO is 5:1) exhibits effective antibacterial properties and high inhibition rate against E. coli and S. aureus. It shows high adhesion ability to various substrate materials, implying a simpler method to the wound obtained by self-fixing rather than suturing. More important, it can produce strong contractility under the irradiation of near-infrared light (NIR), exerting a centripetal force that helps accelerate wound healing. Thus, the hydrogel containing a high concentration PDA@Ag5GO1 irradiated by NIR can completely repair the wound defect (1.0 × 1.0 cm²) within 15 days, the wound healing rate can reach 100%, which was far higher than other groups. Taken together, the new hydrogel with excellent antibacterial, high adhesion and strong contractility will subvert the traditional treatment methods on wound defect, extending its new application range in wound dressing.