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

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 (MoS 2 )/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 MoS 2 plates aligned preferentially with the planar surface perpendicular to the radial direction of the catheter. Benefiting from the preferential alignment of MoS 2 plates, the tensile strength of the rotationally-extruded MoS 2 /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 MoS 2 /PPR catheter with excellent comprehensive performance was prepared by bulk morphology and surface manipulation strategy, which was suitable for industrial scale preparation.