Multifunctional Carbon-Based Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Wound Healing and Health Management

Compared with acute wounds, typical chronic wounds (infection, burn, and diabetic wounds) are susceptible to bacterial infection and hard to heal. As for the complexity of chronic wounds, biocompatible hydrogel dressings can be employed to regulate the microenvironment and accelerate wound healing with their controllable physical and chemical properties. Recently, various nanomaterials have been introduced into hydrogel networks to prepare functional nanocomposite hydrogels. Among them, carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs) have attracted wide attention in the biomedical field due to their outstanding physicochemical properties. However, comprehensive reviews on the use of CBNs for multifunctional hydrogel wound dressings in the past 10 years are very scarce. This review focuses on the research progress on hydrogel dressings made with typical CBNs. Specifically, a series of CBNs (carbon dots, graphene quantum dots, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide) employed in the preparation of hydrogels are described as well as carbon-based nanocomposite hydrogels (CBNHs) with versatility (conductivity, antibacterial, injectable and self-healing, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, substance delivery, stimulus response and real-time monitoring). Moreover, applications of CBNHs in treating different chronic wounds are concretely discussed. This review may provide some new inspirations for the future development of CBNHs in wound care and tissue engineering.