Robust mechanical, lubricated and biocompatible molybdenum disulfide/polypropylene catheter via flow-directed preferential alignment and fluorination treatment

Abstract

Interventional catheter is the essential assembly part of interventional therapy. Confronted with complex channels, the catheter suffers from weak mechanical property, high catheter-tissue friction and inferior biocompatibility. Herein, the robust mechanical, lubricated and biocompatible molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)/polypropylene (PPR) catheter was fabricated via flow-directed preferential alignment and fluorination treatment. By rotating the mandrel and die, a dual-directional flow field was constructed and the two-dimensional MoS2 plates aligned preferentially with the planar surface perpendicular to the radial direction of the catheter. Benefiting from the preferential alignment of MoS2 plates, the tensile strength of the rotationally-extruded MoS2/PPR catheter increased by 25.1% compared to the pristine PPR catheter. Furthermore, the direct fluorination treatment was applied to endow the optimized tribology performance and biocompatibility. As a result, the MoS2/PPR catheter with excellent comprehensive performance was prepared by bulk morphology and surface manipulation strategy, which was suitable for industrial scale preparation.