Structural characterization and tribological evaluation of quince seed mucilage

• We characterize a mucilage extracted from seeds of a quince fruit.
• We show that the mucilage lubricates PE/stainless steel contact better than water.
• Promising tribological behavior of quince mucilage has not been presented before.
• Quince mucilage inspires search for other high-performance water-based lubricants.

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.

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