The recent progress of tribological biomaterials

Tribological phenomena abundantly exist in living beings, especially in human beings, such as in teeth, eyes, bones, skins, heart valves and so on, and it is meaningful to reveal the mechanism of tribology in human body and fabricate artificial biomaterials to replace the damaged tissues to release the pain of patients. Alloys, ceramics and polymers are three uppermost materials used in engineering and some of them play a crucial role in biomedicine. In the paper, we provide an overview of the tribological behaviors of artificial biomaterials including alloys, ceramics and polymers. We aim to provide fundamental mechanistic and applications of tribological biomaterials, while emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages of various kinds of tribological biomaterials. Finally, some challenges and the potential promising breakthroughs are also succinctly highlighted in this field.