Self-assembly of sustainable plant protein protofilaments into a hydrogel for ultra-low friction across length scales

Olivia Pabois; Yihui Dong; Nir Kampf; Christian D. Lorenz; James Doutch; Alejandro Avila-Sierra; Marco Ramaioli; Mingduo Mu; Yasmin Message; Evangelos Liamas; Arwen I.I. Tyler; Jacob Klein; Anwesha Sarkar

doi:10.1038/s43246-024-00590-5

Self-assembly of sustainable plant protein protofilaments into a hydrogel for ultra-low friction across length scales

Olivia Pabois, Yihui Dong, Nir Kampf, Christian D. Lorenz, James Doutch, Alejandro Avila-Sierra, Marco Ramaioli, Mingduo Mu, Yasmin Message, Evangelos Liamas, Arwen I.I. Tyler, Jacob Klein, Anwesha Sarkar^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Designing plant protein-based aqueous lubricants can be of great potential to achieve sustainability objectives by capitalising on inherent functional groups without using synthetic chemicals; however, such a concept remains in its infancy. Here, we engineer a class of self-assembled sustainable materials by using plant-based protofilaments and their assembly within a biopolymeric hydrogel giving rise to a distinct patchy architecture. By leveraging physical interactions, this material offers superlubricity with friction coefficients of 0.004-to-0.00007 achieved under moderate-to-high (10²-to-10³ kPa) contact pressures. Multiscale experimental measurements combined with molecular dynamics simulations reveal an intriguing synergistic mechanism behind such ultra-low friction - where the uncoated areas of the protofilaments glue to the surface by hydrophobic interactions, whilst the hydrogel offers the hydration lubrication. The current approach establishes a robust platform towards unlocking an untapped potential of using plant protein-based building blocks across diverse applications where achieving superlubricity and environmental sustainability are key performance indicators.

Original language	English
Article number	158
Journal	Communications Materials
Volume	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-024-00590-5
Publication status	Published Online - 3 Sept 2024

Funding

The authors acknowledge the European Research Council (ERC) for the provision of funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreements: no. 890644) and UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund (grant agreement: no. EP/X03514X/1). The authors also thank the UKRI Healthy Ageing Catalyst Award (ES/X006565/1) for supporting this research. O.P. acknowledges: the British Society of Rheology (BSR) for the award of the Undergraduate Summer Research Bursary, and the Royal Society for the award of the International Exchanges Scheme that allowed her to conduct a research visit at Weizmann Institute. O.P. thanks ISIS for the provision of beam time on SANS2D (https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2000279). This work benefitted from the use of the SasView application, originally developed under NSF award DMR-0520547. SasView contains code developed with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the SINE2020 project, grant agreement No. 654000. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Materials Science
Mechanics of Materials

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Pabois, O., Dong, Y., Kampf, N., Lorenz, C. D., Doutch, J., Avila-Sierra, A., Ramaioli, M., Mu, M., Message, Y., Liamas, E., Tyler, A. I. I., Klein, J., & Sarkar, A. (2024). Self-assembly of sustainable plant protein protofilaments into a hydrogel for ultra-low friction across length scales. Communications Materials, 5, Article 158. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-024-00590-5

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abstract = "Designing plant protein-based aqueous lubricants can be of great potential to achieve sustainability objectives by capitalising on inherent functional groups without using synthetic chemicals; however, such a concept remains in its infancy. Here, we engineer a class of self-assembled sustainable materials by using plant-based protofilaments and their assembly within a biopolymeric hydrogel giving rise to a distinct patchy architecture. By leveraging physical interactions, this material offers superlubricity with friction coefficients of 0.004-to-0.00007 achieved under moderate-to-high (102-to-103 kPa) contact pressures. Multiscale experimental measurements combined with molecular dynamics simulations reveal an intriguing synergistic mechanism behind such ultra-low friction - where the uncoated areas of the protofilaments glue to the surface by hydrophobic interactions, whilst the hydrogel offers the hydration lubrication. The current approach establishes a robust platform towards unlocking an untapped potential of using plant protein-based building blocks across diverse applications where achieving superlubricity and environmental sustainability are key performance indicators.",

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AU - Ramaioli, Marco

AU - Mu, Mingduo

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Self-assembly of sustainable plant protein protofilaments into a hydrogel for ultra-low friction across length scales

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