Polymer-based lubricating materials for functional hydration lubrication

The hydration lubrication was proposed by Jacob Klein, a famous tribologist, in 2001. The core of this mechanism is the formation of a strong hydrated layer surrounding polar groups. Over the past 20 years, various lubricating materials have been developed according to this mechanism. Among them, polymer-based lubricating materials have attracted much attention because of their facile tunability of structures and functions. Especially, they have played a tremendous role in functional hydration lubrication, which means that other interesting functions can be integrated into hydration lubrication during water-based friction, such as stimuli-responsive property, biomedical performance and biomimetic design. This review outlines the recent progress of functional polymeric materials employed for realizing versatile hydration lubrication, which are categorized as: (i) stimuli-responsive lubricating materials, through external stimuli to control the interfacial friction; (ii) biomedical lubricating materials, integrating lubricating ability into biomedical materials; (iii) biomimetic lubricating materials, designed by learning from living organisms and nature.

Automated summary

In recent years, functional polymeric materials have been widely used to achieve versatile hydration lubrication, mainly categorized as: (i) stimuli-responsive lubricating materials controlled by external stimuli; (ii) biomedical lubricating materials integrating lubricating ability into biomedical materials; (iii) biomimetic lubricating materials designed by learning from living organisms and nature.