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Bacterial infection treatment for chronic wounds has posed a major medical threat and challenge. Bacteria at the wounded sites can compete with the immune system and subsequently invade live tissues, leading to more severe tissue damage. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for wound dressings with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Considering the concept of moist healing, hydrogels with a three-dimensional (3D) network structure are widely used as wound dressings due to their excellent hydrophilicity, water retention properties, and biocompatibility. Developing antibacterial hydrogels for the treatment of infected wounds has been receiving extensive attention recently. This article categorizes antibacterial hydrogels according to their materials and antibacterial modes, and introduces the recent findings and progress regarding their status. More importantly, with the development of emerging technologies, new therapies are utilized to prepare antibacterial hydrogels such as nanoenzymes, photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), and other external stimuli-responsive methods. Therefore, this review also examines their progress, challenges, and future trends as wound dressings. In the following studies, there will still be a focus on antibacterial hydrogels that have a high performance, multi-functions, and intelligence, especially biocompatibility, a high and long-lasting antibacterial property, responsiveness, and on-demand therapeutic ability.

Hydrogels are widely used in wound dressings due to their moisturizing properties and biocompatibility. However, traditional hydrogel dressings cannot monitor wounds and provide accurate treatment. Recent advancements focus on hydrogel dressings with integrated monitoring and treatment functions, using sensors or intelligent materials to detect changes in the wound microenvironment. These dressings enable responsive treatment to promote wound healing. They can carry out responsive dynamic treatment in time to effectively promote wound healing. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive reviews of hydrogel wound dressings that incorporate both wound micro-environment monitoring and treatment functions. Therefore, this review categorizes hydrogel dressings according to wound types and examines their current status, progress, challenges, and future trends. It discusses various wound types, including infected wounds, burns, and diabetic and pressure ulcers, and explores the wound healing process. The review presents hydrogel dressings that monitor wound conditions and provide tailored treatment, such as pH-sensitive, temperature-sensitive, glucose-sensitive, pressure-sensitive, and nano-composite hydrogel dressings. Challenges include developing dressings that meet the standards of excellent biocompatibility, improving monitoring accuracy and sensitivity, and overcoming obstacles to production and commercialization. Furthermore, it provides the current status, progress, challenges, and future trends in this field, aiming to give a clear view of its past, present, and future.

In this study, we simulated the electric field distribution of side-by-side electrospinning by using the finite element method (FEM), and studied the effects of spinneret wall thickness, spinning voltage and receiving distance on the distribution of the electrostatic field. The receiving distance was selected as a variable in the experimental, a series of PAN/PSA composite nanofiber membranes were prepared by using a self-made side by side electrospinning device. The membranes were tested by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The prepared membranes were also treated by high-temperature treatment, and the change of fiber diameter and conductivity of the membrane before and after high-temperature treatment were studied. It was found that the PAN/PSA carbonized nanofibers could achieve a better performance in heat resistance and conductivity at 200 mm receiving distance.

In this study we investigated the effects of jet path on the morphology and mat size of synthetic polystyrene (PS) fibers during the electrospinning process. In addition, the mechanism of the fiber mats, which were prepared by varying the solution concentration, was evaluated. The straight jet length, envelope cone and whipping frequency of each electrospun jet were studied using images captured by a high-speed photography camera. The results showed that higher solution concentrations led to longer straight jet lengths, smaller envelope cones and lower whipping frequencies. The diameter and surface morphology of the PS fibers were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that fibers spun with higher solution concentrations exhibited larger diameters and diameter distributions because of their jet path features. Furthermore, the electrospun jets with higher concentrations increased elongation and produced smaller fiber mats and higher breaking forces as a result of their different jet paths, which was a consequence of varying the solution concentration.