Skip to Content
77 Mass Ave

Friction Fighter

New hydrogel coatings may lead to better catheters and condoms.
October 24, 2017
Felice Frankel | MIT News Office

Catheters, intravenous lines, and other types of surgical tubing are a medical necessity for managing a wide range of diseases. But a patient’s experience with such devices is rarely a comfortable one.

Now MIT engineers have designed a gel-like material that can be used to coat standard plastic or rubber devices, providing a softer, more slippery exterior that can significantly ease a patient’s discomfort. The coating can even be tailored to monitor and treat signs of infection.

The team has developed a method to strongly bond a layer of hydrogel—a squishy, slippery polymer material that consists mostly of water—to common elastomers such as latex, rubber, and silicone. The results are “hydrogel laminates” that are soft, stretchable, and slippery as well as impermeable to viruses and other small molecules.

Compounds that sense inflammatory molecules or other troublemakers can be embedded into the hydrogel coating. Drugs can also be incorporated into it and slowly released to treat, say, inflammation or pain.

The team, led by Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, bonded layers of hydrogel to various elastomer-based medical devices, including catheters and intravenous tubing. They found that the coatings were extremely durable, able to bend and twist without cracking. The coatings were also extremely slippery, exhibiting much less friction than standard uncoated catheters.

The group also used hydrogel to coat another widely used elastomer product: condoms. In addition to enhancing the comfort of existing latex condoms by reducing friction, a coating of hydrogel could help improve their safety by incorporating drugs to counter a latex allergy, the researchers say.

In previous research, the team has “demonstrated hydrogel really has the potential to replace common elastomers,” Zhao says. “Now we have a method to integrate gels with other materials. We think this has the potential to be applied to a diverse range of medical devices interfacing with the body.”

Keep Reading

Most Popular

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

What to know about this autumn’s covid vaccines

New variants will pose a challenge, but early signs suggest the shots will still boost antibody responses.

Human-plus-AI solutions mitigate security threats

With the right human oversight, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can help keep business and customer data secure

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.