Soft tissue sticking on electrosurgical scalpels in minimally invasive surgery can increase\nthe difficulty of operation and easily lead to medical malpractice. It is significant to develop new\nmethods for anti-sticking of soft tissue on electrosurgical scalpels. Based on the characteristics of\nbiomimetic ultra-slippery surface, a self-lubricating slippery surface with wettability gradients on\nelectrosurgical scalpel was designed and fabricated. Non-uniformly distributed cylindrical micro\npillars, which constitute the wettability gradients, were prepared by an electrolytic etching process\nand the theoretic of the spontaneous liquid spreading process was analyzed. The silicophilic property\nof wettability gradients surface was modified by octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) self-assembling coat\nwith biocompatible liquid lubricant dimethyl silicone oil. The contact angle of gradientâ??s surface\nat different temperatures was measured. The transportation behaviors of both water and dimethyl\nsilicone oil on the wettability gradientâ??s surface were investigated; the results illustrate that the\nwettability gradientâ??s slippery surface can successfully self-lubricate from regions with low pillar\ndensity to regions with high pillar density, ascribed to the unbalanced Youngâ??s force. The anti-sticking\ncapability of the electrosurgical scalpel with self-lubricating slippery surface was tested. Both the\nadhesion force and adhesion mass under different cycles were calculated. The results suggest that\nthe as-prepared slippery surface has excellent anti-sticking ability associated with better durability.
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