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.

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

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2320068

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

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

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