ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

de Gennes?s mesh size in cartilage-inspired self-repairing alginate LipoGels

Abstract: Inspired by the exceptional lubricity in living systems (e.g. knee joints and eye blinking), a physically cross-linked hydrogel film has been prepared from sodium alginate, an abundant green biopolymer derived from brown algae. Alginate hydrogels were cross-linked by divalent cations, Ca2+, and liposomes (or lipid vesicles) were embedded into the gel, aiming to generate a lubricious and self-repairing material, also with the potential for therapeutic encapsulation. The lubrication performance of the alginate hydrogels was evaluated with a tribometer (UMT Tribolab), and the results showed that the 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) embedded alginate hydrogel exhibited excellent lubrication with a coefficient of friction (CoF) of 0.058 under water. However, to our best knowledge, no structural characterisation has been reported on such novel lubricious liposome-embedded hydrogels. Here, we propose a small angle neutron scattering (SANS) study of the hydrogel nanostructure, varying the alginate concentration, cross-linking conditions, type of lipids, and temperature. The unprecedented results offer structural insights into alginate hydrogels, enabling a correlation with the mechanical characterisation of the gel using nanoindenter and rheometer. Ultimately, this will underpin the rational design of robust hydrogels with tailored nanostructures for biomimetic lubrication.

Public release date: 13 December 2026

Principal Investigator: Professor Wuge Briscoe
Local Contact: Dr Najet Mahmoudi
Local Contact: Dr James Doutch
Experimenter: Miss Sofia Rogers Ruiz
Experimenter: Mr Matteo Fois
Experimenter: Miss Xueying Guo
Experimenter: Miss Charlotte Kenton
Experimenter: Mr Tao Ma
Experimenter: Mr Oliver McDowell
Experimenter: Dr Magdalena Wlodek

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2320068-1

Parent DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2320068

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2320068

Part Number: 1

Date of Experiment: 10 December 2023

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Wuge Briscoe et al; (2023): de Gennes?s mesh size in cartilage-inspired self-repairing alginate LipoGels, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2320068-1

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.