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Research Article

Dual-physical network PVA hydrogel commensurate with articular cartilage bearing lubrication enabled by harnessing nanoscale crystalline domains

Danli Hu1,2, Desheng Liu1(), Yue Hu3, Yixian Wang4, Yaozhong Lu1, Changcheng Bai1,2, Khan Rajib Hossain1,2, Pan Jiang1(), Xiaolong Wang1,2,4()
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at Yantai, Yantai Zhongke Research Institute of Advanced Materials and Green Chemical Engineering, Yantai 264006, China
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A strong yet slippery polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan (PVA/CS) hydrogel with dual-physically crosslinked networks was fabricated by harnessing freeze-thawing, salting-out, annealing, and rehydration. The slippery PVA/CS hydrogels simultaneously achieve high load-bearing, low-friction, and abrasion resistance, which is able to serve as a potential alternative to soft tissue load-bearing, such as meniscus, knee pads, joint prostheses, and articular cartilage.

Abstract

Hydrogel, as one of potential soft materials for articular cartilage, has encountered pressing obstacles, such as insufficient mechanical properties, poor lubrication, and easy to wear. To tackle these, we propose a strong yet slippery polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan (PVA/CS) hydrogel with dual-physically crosslinked networks by harnessing freeze-thawing, salting-out, annealing, and rehydration. High mechanical properties of PVA/CS hydrogel can be readily regulated by adjusting proportion of PVA/CS and annealing temperature. The optimized hydrogel exhibits high mechanical properties with tensile strength of ~ 19 MPa at strain of 550%, compression strength of ~ 11 MPa at small strain of 39%, and outstanding toughness and anti-fatigue owing to the robust physical interactions, including hydrogen bonds, crystallization, and ionic coordination. Moreover, the equilibrium hydrogel shows low friction coefficient of ~ 0.05 against Al2O3 ball under the condition of 30 N, 1 Hz, with water as the tribological medium, which is close to the lubrication performance of native cartilage. And meanwhile, the proposed cartilage-like slippery hydrogel displays stable long-term lubrication performance for 1 × 105 reciprocating cycles without destructive wear and structure damage. It is therefore believed that the biocompatible cartilage-like slippery hydrogel opens innovative scenarios for developing cartilage-mimicking water-lubricated coating and biomedical implants with satisfactory load-bearing and lubrication performance.

Keywords

slippery hydrogelbio-lubricationhigh load-bearingsalting-out and annealingabrasion resistance

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Nano Research
Volume 17 Issue 11,
November 2024
Pages 9784-9795
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-024-6968-8
Cite this article:
Hu D, Liu D, Hu Y, et al. Dual-physical network PVA hydrogel commensurate with articular cartilage bearing lubrication enabled by harnessing nanoscale crystalline domains. Nano Research, 2024, 17(11): 9784-9795. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6968-8
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