3D-Printed Hydrogels from Recycled Cellulose for Biomedical Applications

Growing environmental awareness has led to a shift in focus toward green chemistry and the development of more sustainable materials. Cellulose is one of the most abundant renewable polymers, providing stability and flexibility in plant cell walls. Because of these properties, it has often been used as a base material for textiles, which can be recycled and the cellulose recovered, making it a promising candidate for environmentally friendlier polymer synthesis. Herein, we show a sustainable method for recycling and modifying cellulose to facilitate photochemical crosslinking to attain biocompatible hydrogels under mild reaction conditions, which can thus also be used for the fabrication of complex 3D structures via digital light processing (DLP). This approach presents an excellent technique for the fabrication of customized cell scaffolds for biomedical applications, such as the use as a wound dressing to treat chronic wounds.