New insights into zinc-doped carbon dots embedded in hydrogel: Highlighting enhanced wound healing and skin tissue...

Seeking a more efficient way to deal with the treatment of complex wounds has always been an urgent need. Zinc-doped carbon dots (Zn-CDs) are proposed to prepare hydrogel based on carboxymethyl chitosan. The results showed that Zn-CDs with excellent antibacterial property were formed by the coordination bond between CDs and zinc ions, molecular network structure obtained by hydrogen bond between carboxymethyl chitosan and Zn-CDs was cross-linked to form Zn-CDs based hydrogel (ZCBCH). ZCBCH exhibited excellent adhesion with the shear strength of 2.39 kPa, water vapor permeability with moisture vapor transmission rate of 26.3 g·m^-2·day^-1, antibacterial activity to Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, absorption capacity in deionized water, PBS, and 1 M NaCl solution, and blood compatibility with no hemolysis. More importantly, promoting wound healing and skin tissue regeneration is achieved by augmenting collagen encapsulation in ZCBCH with a recovery rate of 95.79%, a cell viability of 109.90%, in vitro hemolysis of 2.75%, and no toxicity to organs. The hydrogel with excellent properties prepared in this study is expected to achieve practical applications in the medical field.