Targeted Repair of Super‐Lubricating Surfaces via Pairing Click Chemistry

Abstract

AbstractIntact advanced lubricating coatings can rival natural hydration lubricating systems. However, once damaged, their lubricity is drastically diminished as the delaminated coating materials are either unable to re‐bond to the original substrate due to the irreversible bond breakage or easily bridge the opposing rubbing surface via non‐specific interactions. Inspired by the reversibility and selectivity of dynamic click chemistry, super‐lubricating surfaces with targeted self‐repairability are developed through a surface‐recognized strategy. The rubbing surfaces exhibit superlubricity with friction coefficient µ ≈0.002 at physiologically high pressure (≈7.5 MPa). When wear‐induced coating‐substrate breakage occurs, the lubricating materials can target and reassociate with their pairing surfaces through specific dynamic covalent linkages, circumventing surface bridging, and recovering high lubricity even upon repeated damage. This study offers an innovative paradigm for developing durable lubricating surfaces with bespoke reparability for biomedical applications.