Deferoxamine grafted alginate (SA-DFA) was successfully synthesized via amidation of sodium alginate with deferoxamine mesylate as determined by H-NMR and elemental analysis. SA-DFA with different graft yield was obtained by adjusting the ratio of sodium alginate and deferoxamine mesylate. It was found that aqueous solution of SA-DFA could form hydrogel spontaneously due to hydrogen bonding interactions, which also endowed the SA-DFA hydrogel with self-healing capability. The healing efficiency of SA-DFA hydrogels ranged from 53.64 to 90.16%. In addition, surface morphologies of SA-DFA hydrogels before/after self-healing process were demonstrated by SEM images. We anticipated that such self-healable alginate hydrogel would be applied in the field of wound healing. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017, 55, 856-865