Hydrogels: Recent Advances (Gels Horizons: From Science to Smart Materials)

Discusses the recent advances in hydrogels useful for different applications

Presents an important compendium of fundamental concepts and recent advances in hydrogels

Provides the readers with the necessary knowledge of the different physical and chemical hydrogel formation mechanisms

Highlights the most important hydrogel materials, including physical hydrogels, chemical hydrogels, and nanohydrogels

Dr. Vijay Kumar Thakur is currently a Permanent Faculty in the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing , Cranfield University, UK. Some of his other prior significant appointments include being a Research Scientist in Temasek Laboratories at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2009-2012) and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at LHU–Taiwan. He spent his postdoctoral study in Materials Science & Engineering at Iowa State University, USA and received Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry (2009). In the course of his academic career, he has published more than 100 SCI journal research articles in the field of chemical sciences/materials science and holds one US patent. Among these, ten of his research papers have been highlighted as “Highly Cited Papers” in Web of Science (less than 1% of published papers receive this ranking), while three others have been highlighted as “Hot Papers” (Hot papers are selected

Dr. Manju Kumari Thakur has been working as an assistant professor of Chemistry at the Division of Chemistry, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India since June 2010. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry, Botany andZoology; M.Sc., M. Phil in Organic Chemistry and Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the Chemistry Department at Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, INDIA. She has broad experience in the field of organic chemistry, biopolymers, composites/nanocomposites, hydrogels, applications of hydrogels in the removal of toxic heavy metal ions, drug delivery, etc. She has published more than 30 research papers in several international journals, has co-authored three books, and has also published 25 book chapters in the field of polymeric materials.