Mechanism of biological liquid superlubricity of Brasenia schreberi mucilage.

In the present work, an excellent biological lubricant extracted from an aquatic plant called Brasenia schreberi (B.s) is reported. With a rotary cylinder-on-ring tribometer, the lubrication properties of the B.s mucilage between quartz glass surfaces have been investigated under different rotation velocity, and an ultralow friction coefficient between 0.004 and 0.006 is obtained. It is observed that the ultralow friction coefficient is independent of the rotation speed, when it is less than 0.1 m/s. SEM images indicate that the mucilage surrounding B.s is composed of polysaccharide gels with a layered structure, which are called nanosheets in the following work. Moreover, it can be deduced that the liquid superlubricity is closely related to the B.s mucilage layer absorbed on the quartz glass surface by hydrogen bonds and the superlubricity behavior only occurs when the adsorption layer stably forms between the quartz glass surface and the B.s mucilage. It is also found that superlubricity is closely dependent upon the sheet structure of the B.s mucilage and water molecules in the mucilage. According to these results, a layered nanosheets lubrication mechanism has been revealed, i.e., the ultralow friction coefficient is due to the adsorption layer of polysaccharide on the quartz glass surface and the hydration layers of water molecules bonded on the polysaccharide nanosheets between the sliding surfaces.