Bioinspired Smart Coating with Superior Tribological Performance.

Inspired by the structure of cancellous bone and the nutrition metabolism of articular cartilage, we present a novel concept for a synthetic articular-cartilage-like material. The bioinspired material possesses a low coefficient of friction even under ultrahigh loads and has an extremely long lifetime. Furthermore, the composite shows zero-wear behavior and causes negligible wear damage to the friction pair. The superior tribological performance is attributed to the spontaneously generated articular-cartilage-like layer, which is constantly replenished by frictional heat and pressure. Our findings open a new area for industrial scale engineering applications to improve the friction and wear properties of moving components.