High-performance polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan hydrogel enhanced with quaternized nanocellulose-ZnO nanocomposites for accelerated wound healing

The development of hydrogel dressings that exhibit excellent moisturizing, antibacterial, and pro-healing properties is an urgent need in the field of wound healing. This study designs a multifunctional hydrogel dressing (QCPVA-ZnO) to address this challenge by incorporating a quaternized nanocellulose‑zinc oxide hybrid (QCNC-ZnO) into a polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan matrix. QCPVA-ZnO exhibited excellent moisture retention and breathability, with a water vapor transmission rate of 2440 g·m −2 ·day −1 and an oxygen permeability rate of 111 g·mm/m 2 ·day·kPa, which could be attributed to the synergistic effect of its porous structure and hydrophilic cross-linked network. The experiment of the full-thickness skin defect model in mice showed that QCPVA-ZnO had significant healing promoting ability, with a wound healing rate of 97.6% by day 11. This can be attributed to QCNC-ZnO endowing QCPVA-ZnO with a good bactericidal rate of 99%, which thereby enabled the latter to effectively control infections, reduce inflammatory reactions, and further promote angiogenesis and epidermal regeneration. In addition, biosafety evaluations indicated that QCPVA-ZnO had a cell survival rate of over 90% and hemolysis of less than 2%, demonstrating good biocompatibility. This study improves the moisturizing, air permeability, antibacterial and healing promoting functions of the hydrogel, providing a new idea for the development of multi-functional wound dressings.