Tribological study on new therapeutic bionic lubricants

New therapeutic bionic lubricants for artificial joint lubrication and the treatment of particle-induced osteolysis were developed. In this study, their tribological characteristics and mechanisms have been investigated. The tribological experimental results show that the therapeutic lubricants have the best anti-wear performance among the lubricants tested, such as hyaluronic acid (HA) and bovine serum. Some self-assembled membranes were found on the surfaces of the cups, which might contribute to the high lubrication performance of the therapeutic lubricants. The calculated film thickness of therapeutic lubricants is about 0.310 mu m, which is still in the boundary lubrication region. The preliminary biological experiments show that therapeutic lubricants have good biocompatibility. It is necessary to do more experimental work in the future to investigate the formation of the membrane and the medical performance of the therapeutic bionic lubricants for better understanding of the effects of the undesired reactions induced by the wear debris.