Structural characterization and tribological evaluation of quince seed mucilage

Timo J. Hakala, Vesa Saikko, Suvi Arola, Tiina Ahlroos, Aino Helle, Petri Kuosmanen, Kenneth Holmberg, Markus B. Linder, Päivi Laaksonen*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    55 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The mucilage, originating from the seeds of quince fruit was characterized as a potential bio-inspired water-based lubricant. The mucilage consists mainly of fine cellulose nanofibrils and charged hemicelluloses whose structure and properties were characterized here by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and tribological Pin-On-Disc (POD) experiments. The hemicellulose-decorated nanocellulose fibrils were 3.0±0.7 nm in thickness, had a very large aspect ratio and also had a tendency to self-align when dried on mica surface. Macroscale tribological tests showed that the mucilage was able to reduce the coefficient of friction of polyethylene/stainless steel contact to values below 0.03. Thus, we show that quince mucilage is a native nanocellulose material with a notable ability to lower friction.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)24-31
    JournalTribology International
    Volume77
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • Biolubrication
    • biomimetics
    • boundary lubrication
    • macromolecules

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