Synovial fluid-inspired biomimetic lubricating microspheres: Zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes-grafted microgels

Guoqiang LIU; Yang FENG; Xiaohua GAO; Zhuo CHEN; Nan ZHAO; Feng ZHOU; Weimin LIU

doi:10.1007/s40544-022-0634-5

Friction 2023, 11(6): 938-948 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0634-5

Research Article |

Open Access | Issue | Published: 15 August 2022

Synovial fluid-inspired biomimetic lubricating microspheres: Zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes-grafted microgels

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Guoqiang LIU^{¹^,^†}(

), Yang FENG^{¹^,^†}, Xiaohua GAO^¹, Zhuo CHEN^¹, Nan ZHAO^¹, Feng ZHOU^{¹^,²}(

), Weimin LIU^{¹^,²}

1 Center of Advanced Lubrication and Seal Materials, State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China

2 State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

† Guoqiang LIU and Yang FENG contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:

aqueous lubrication, biomimetic design, zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes, polymeric microgels

Cite this article:

LIU G, FENG Y, GAO X, et al. Synovial fluid-inspired biomimetic lubricating microspheres: Zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes-grafted microgels. Friction, 2023, 11(6): 938-948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-022-0634-5

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Abstract

Synovial fluid is made up of various biomacromolecules, including hyaluronic acid, aggrecans, lubricins, and phosphatidylcholine lipid, which are assembled onto the surface of articular cartilage in a gel state. Among them, brush-like biomacromolecules or assemblies have a vital effect on human joint lubrication. Inspired by this, the combination of brush-like molecular structures and gel-like assembly may be an efficient approach for the synthesis of biomimetic lubricating matters. Learning from the lubrication system of human joints, poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC) brushes grafted poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (poly(NIPAAm-co-AA)) microgels, abbreviated as MBs-g-MGs, were synthesized as one kind of biomimetic lubricating additives. It is worth noting that this bionic strategy considered both molecular structure and assembled form, which enabled this hairy microgel to achieve low friction in aqueous medium. Meanwhile, the effective lubrication was still achieved when using MBs-g-MGs at high temperature, indicating that this microgel maintains a good lubricating effect over a wide range of temperature. In addition, this kind of microgel possessed good biocompatibility, which laid the foundation for potential biomedical applications. Looking beyond, these biomimetic microgels may provide an effective lubricating effect for water-based sliding interfaces, especially in biomedical systems.

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Synovial fluid-inspired biomimetic lubricating microspheres: Zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes-grafted microgels

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Guoqiang LIU^{¹^,^†}(

), Yang FENG^{¹^,^†}, Xiaohua GAO^¹, Zhuo CHEN^¹, Nan ZHAO^¹, Feng ZHOU^{¹^,²}(

), Weimin LIU^{¹^,²}

1 Center of Advanced Lubrication and Seal Materials, State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China

2 State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

† Guoqiang LIU and Yang FENG contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Keywords: aqueous lubrication, biomimetic design, zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes, polymeric microgels

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Acknowledgements

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Publication history

Received: 07 January 2022

Revised: 13 February 2022

Accepted: 08 April 2022

Published: 15 August 2022

Issue date: June 2023

Copyright

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51905433 and 52175187), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M692625), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 3102019JC001).

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