The friction behaviour of new chitosan derivative coatings obtained by chemical modification of chitosanudwith fatty acids (linoleic and dilinoleic acid) has been investigated in order to explore their potential asudendovascular catheter coatings and to benchmark them against commercially available coatings used inudendovascular catheter applications. An in vitro tribological system was developed that was intended toudrepresent to a limited extent the in vivo tribological conditions of a typical endovascular catheterizationudprocedure. Continuous reciprocating sliding tests were carried out with uncoated and coated polymerudspecimens. The results showed that all of the coatings tested decreased the coefficient of frictionudcompared to the uncoated polymer. Compared to a neat chitosan coating, the chitosan derivativeudcoatings showed a clear reduction in the coefficient of friction to levels similar to those of theudcommercially-available coatings. A comparison between the friction results and contact angle measurementsudcarried out on the coatings indicated that a range of contact angle values exists for which theudfriction coefficient is at a minimum. The reason for this is unclear and further studies are required inudorder to confirm and investigate the trend, especially within the context of hydrophilic lubriciousudcoating development.
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