Superlubricity in Gemini Hydrogels

Abstract

Gemini hydrogels have repeatedly produced low friction under conditions generally not thought to be favorable to superlubricity: low sliding speeds, low contact pressures, macroscopic contact areas, and room temperature aqueous environments. A proposed explanation for this unique behavior is that thermal fluctuations at the interface are sufficient to separate the surfaces, with solvent (water) shearing in this region being the main source of dissipation. In this paper, we demonstrate that very soft and correspondingly large mesh size Gemini hydrogels show superlubricity with the lowest measured friction coefficient being μ = 0.0013 ± 0.0006.