Grafting a lubricious coating onto photo-crosslinked poly(trimethylene carbonate)

For biomaterial applications that involve moving parts such as artificial joints, lubricity is an essential property. Poly (trimethylene carbonate) networks are relatively hydrophobic. To create a lubricious layer, methacrylated poly(ethylene glycol) and methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) were grafted onto poly(trimethylene carbonate) networks by photo-crosslinking. After conditioning for 24h in water, no delamination was observed, showing that the grafted hydrophilic layers were covalently attached to the poly(trimethylene carbonate) network. The lubricating properties were assessed by means of friction experiments, and the friction coefficients with relevant biomaterials were determined. It was shown that the grafting results in a significant decrease of the friction coefficients. These results show the potential of this approach to obtain lubricious materials for application in biomedical engineering. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.