Pathogens, especially drug-resistant pathogens caused by the abuse of antibiotics, have become a major threat to human health and public health safety. The exploitation and application of new antibacterial agents is extremely urgent. As a natural biopolymer, cellulose has recently attracted much attention due to its excellent hydrophilicity, economy, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In particular, the preparation of cellulose-based hydrogels with excellent structure and properties from cellulose and its derivatives has received increasing attention thanks to the existence of abundant hydrophilic functional groups (such as hydroxyl, carboxy, and aldehyde groups) within cellulose and its derivatives. The cellulose-based hydrogels have broad application prospects in antibacterial-related biomedical fields. The latest advances of preparation and antibacterial application of cellulose-based hydrogels has been reviewed, with a focus on the antibacterial applications of composite hydrogels formed from cellulose and metal nanoparticles; metal oxide nanoparticles; antibiotics; polymers; and plant extracts. In addition, the antibacterial mechanism and antibacterial characteristics of different cellulose-based antibacterial hydrogels were also summarized. Furthermore, the prospects and challenges of cellulose-based antibacterial hydrogels in biomedical applications were also discussed.

Utilizing sugar compounds (such as fructose) as feedstock for conversion to HMF is very appealing, because it makes the production processes sustainable and improves the economic viability of platform molecules derived from biomass. Here, SBA-15 with sulfonic acid functionalization was created as a heterogeneous base catalyst for fructose hydrolysis reactions to create significant platform chemicals. A fructose conversion rate as high as 100%, along with a 78.7% yield of HMF, were obtained in DMSO at 130 °C after 1 h. The excellent catalytic performance of SBA-15-SO₃H in fructose hydrolysis reactions was confirmed by the activation energy’s low value (56.99 kJ/mol). The mild conditions, fast rate of reaction, and simple operation are worth mentioning for other catalysts. SBA-15-SO₃H has the potential to promote fructose conversion at lower temperatures.

High-effective synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from carbohydrates is an interesting reaction among biomass valorization. The as-synthesized Ti-SBA-15 catalysts with mesoporous structures showed high catalytic efficiency for the conversion of fructose to HMF. Ti-SBA-15 catalysts with different Si/Ti ratios were characterized by characterization techniques such as elemental analysis, XRD, TEM, N₂ adsorption–desorption, NH₃-TPD, and pyridine-FTIR. The acidity of Ti-SBA-15 catalysts could be tuned by altering addition amount of titanium. The effects of reaction conditions, including reaction time, temperature, and amount of catalyst, on the conversions of fructose and the yields of HMF were also investigated. It is found that Ti-SBA-15 catalysts whose Si/Ti ratio is 120 gave the best yields of HMF, which demonstrated 100% conversion of fructose with a maximum HMF yield of 82% at 140°C after 1 h. In addition, its catalytic performance was retained after 5 recycles in fructose conversion reaction, proving its good catalytic stability.