Lubrication and wear protection of micro-structured hydrogels using bioinspired fluids
Article [Accepted Manuscript]
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Biomacromolecules ; vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 326-335.Publisher(s)
American Chemical SocietyAuthor(s)
Affiliation
Abstract(s)
We report the fabrication and the use of a bioinspired synovial fluid acting as a lubricant fluid
and anti-wear agent at soft and porous chitosan hydrogel tribopairs. This synthetic synovial
fluid is composed of sodium hyaluronate (HA) and a bottle-brush polymer (BB) having a
polycationic attachment group and polyzwitterionic pendant chains. 2.5 %w/w chitosan
hydrogel plugs are organized in a bilayered structure exposing a thin and dense superficial
zone (SZ), covering a porous deep zone (DZ) and exhibiting microchannels perpendicularly
aligned to the SZ. Using a low-load tribometer, the addition of HA lubricating solution at the
hydrogel-hydrogel rubbing contact drastically decreased the coefficient of friction (CoF) from
μ = 0.20 ± 0.01 to μ = 0.04 ± 0.01 on the DZ configuration and from μ = 0.31 ± 0.01 to μ =
0.08 ± 0.01 on the SZ surface when increasing HA concentration from 0 to 1000 μg/mL and
its molecular mass from 10 to 1500 kDa, similar to what was found when using BB polymer
alone. When combining the BB polymer and the 1500 kDa HA, the CoF remained stable at μ
= 0.04 ± 0.01 for both studied contact configurations, highlighting the synergistic interaction
of the two macromolecules. Hydrogel wear was characterized by assessing the final gel
surface roughness by the means of an interferometer. Increasing HA concentration and
molecular weight plus the addition of BB polymer lead to a dramatic surface wear protection
with a final gel surface roughness of the hydrogels similar to the untested gels. In brief, BB
polymer in combination with high molecular weight HA is a potential lubricating fluid as well
as a wear resistant agent for soft materials lubrication and wear protection.
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