Tribological Performance Optimization of Advanced Composite Materials and Lubrication Mechanisms at Bio-Mechanical Interfaces

Advanced composite materials are widely adopted in precision machinery and biomedical engineering due to their customizable mechanical properties and functional versatility. Tribological issues, including interfacial friction, abrasive wear and fatigue failure, severely degrade the service performance and durability of composite components. This challenge is most acute at bio-mechanical interfaces, where composites must sustain dynamic mechanical contact while maintaining long-term biological compatibility. Representative systems include load-bearing joint prostheses (such as hip and knee implants), dental and spinal implant components, blood-contacting cardiovascular devices (catheters, stents, and heart valve leaflets), and skin-contacting wearable or soft-robotic interfaces. Traditional material design and lubrication strategies, primarily developed for dry or industrial contacts, fail to adapt to these physiologically complex service environments, making in-depth exploration of composite tribological behaviors and interfacial lubrication mechanisms an urgent research demand.This Research Topic targets core bottlenecks distinct from those already well covered in general composite tribology and industrial lubrication research. In load-bearing prostheses, the unresolved challenge is controlling third-body wear debris generation and its link to periprosthetic osteolysis and aseptic loosening under multiaxial, cyclic physiological loading, not simply reducing bulk wear rate. In blood- and tissue-contacting devices, the key gap is sustaining stable boundary lubrication and low-friction sliding in the presence of protein adsorption and biofilm formation, which progressively degrade synthetic lubricious coatings in ways that bench-top dry or saline-only wear tests fail to capture. In soft, skin- or tissue-facing interfaces, the challenge is maintaining tribological stability under repeated, low-load, hydrated cyclic contact without triggering inflammatory or immune response. With the rapid development of nano-modification, bionic surface design, and interfacial regulation technologies, recent advances have realized preliminary optimization of composite wear resistance and biocompatible lubrication for some of these systems. However, the field still lacks a systematic account of how structural design translates into in-service tribological reliability across these specific interface classes. This Topic aims to consolidate that progress and clarify the research gaps still preventing translation from bench to clinical or engineering deployment. The scope encompasses nano-reinforced polymer composites for load-bearing implants, bionic lubricious coatings for blood- and tissue-contacting devices, tribological behavior at joint, dental, spinal, and cardiovascular biomechanical interfaces, and interfacial anti-wear/lubrication regulation strategies for soft wearable or robotic skin interfaces. We welcome original research articles, technical papers, and state-of-the-art reviews focusing on material structural design, tribological characterization under physiologically representative conditions, lubrication mechanism analysis, and engineering or clinical application verification. Submissions should report original findings or systematic summaries that advance the industrial and biomedical application of advanced tribological composites, with clear positioning of the specific biomechanical interface and failure mode addressed. Topic editors: Jie Zhang, Bin Wang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83958/tribological-performance-optimization-of-advanced-composite-materials-and-lubrication-mechanisms-at-bio-mechanical-interfaces