Recent advances in ionogels for biomedical applications: wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering and bioadhesion

Ionogels are a class of soft materials comprising a three-dimensional network that immobilizes ionic liquids (ILs). They have drawn considerable attention due to a suite of exceptional and tunable physicochemical properties, such as nonvolatility, excellent thermal and electrochemical stability, adjustable mechanical strength and high ionic conductivity. Building upon these inherent properties and by leveraging the functions of selected ILs, research interest is increasingly shifting toward their biocompatible and biofunctional aspects. This review investigates the recent advances of ionogels in the biomedical field, particularly in the past five years, focusing on antibacterial agents, wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, tumor therapy and bioadhesion. As a cutting-edge interdisciplinary field, ionogels present significant opportunities that require close collaboration among scientists to accelerate the transition from the laboratory to industrialization and bring revolutionary advances to human health.