Amphiphilic Arbutin Derivatives as Renewable Bio-Lubricants with Efficient Antibacterial Activity and Low Cytotoxicity

The synthetic lubrication materials have been properly developed. However, it is still faced with problems such as poor sustainability and insufficient lubrication performance. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop sustainable lubricants and reveal the key factors affecting their lubrication. On this basis, a new class of natural arbutin derivatives were prepared. The friction coefficients of 0.5 wt % 6-O–Decanoyl-Arbutin (ArC10) and 0.5 wt % 6-O–Dodecanoyl-Arbutin (ArC12) dispersions were 0.054 and 0.047, respectively, which were reduced by 65.2 and 69.7% compared with hyaluronic acid sodium salt (HA). The wear rates of 0.5 wt % ArC10 and 0.5 wt % ArC12 dispersions were reduced by 85.8 and 84.7% compared with HA, respectively. The amphiphilic arbutin derivatives could form micronano scale soft aggregation micelles in the water dispersion system, promote the self-assembly of hydration lubricating film, and effectively improve the tribological properties. In addition, the antibacterial efficiency of ArC10 and ArC12 against S. aureus was more than 99.84% and has low cytotoxicity. This work proved a new source of antibacterial biobased lubricants on a large scale.