Advances in Biomedical and Environmental Applications of Magnetic Hydrogels

Hydrogels have been the focus of research across disciplinesorsubject perspectives owing to their distinctive chemical, physical,and mechanical characteristics. Hydrogels have been leveraged fortheir biocompatibility and attractive adhesion or adsorption behavior.Conventional hydrogels suffer from frequent entrapment due to lowcontrollability, limited responsiveness, and weak actuation properties.Magnetic hydrogels address many of these concerns and offer a rapidmagnetic response and precise temporal and spatial control. The structuraland functional features of magnetic hydrogels can address overlappingrequirements in biomedical and environmental applications. The focusof this review is on the progress made in the use of magnetic hydrogels.Specifically, their applications in controlled drug delivery as contrastagents in magnetic resonance imaging and in the treatment and remediationof wastewater are discussed. The first part of the review delineatesstrategies for preparing magnetic hydrogels and the advantages ofeach approach. The second part of the review describes a variety ofbiomedical and environmental applications for highlighting the convergentfunctionalities of magnetic hydrogels that are relevant to each domain.The challenges in the use of magnetic hydrogels and prospective applicationsare also included in the review.