The next generation of condom can lubricate itself. It comes with a polymer coating that turns slippery once it comes into contact with body fluids – and that doesn’t dry out.
Condoms are not the most comfortable things to wear, so most store-sold condoms are coated with silicone oil as a lubricant. But silicone oil – as well as other water-, oil- and silicone-based lubricants – are easily absorbed by the skin, so the lubrication doesn’t work for extended periods.
Mark Grinstaff at Boston University and his colleagues have addressed the problem. They coated latex condoms with a new “water-loving” coating called HEA/BP/PVP. This becomes slippery once it encounters water and body fluids. The coating also bonds strongly with the latex in condoms so it won’t come off during use.
Advertisement
The team measured the friction produced when rubbing the polymer-coated latex against a skin-like surface for 16 minutes. The polymer-coated latex generated 53 per cent less fiction than non-coated latex that was simply lubricated by water.
People pleaser
Grinstaff’s team found that non-coated latex covered in a commercially available lubricant generated less friction than their polymer-coated latex – but only inside the first five minutes of use. By the end of the 16 minute test period, the friction from latex with personal lubricant was 10 per cent greater than that from the polymer-coated latex.
The team also asked people to rate the slipperiness of the coating. After touching different materials, 85 per cent of the participants said the new polymer coating felt more slippery than latex coated with a personal lubricant.
“It has been 50 years since a major improvement in condom design — that was silicone oil as the lubricant,” Grinstaff says. “A self-lubricating condom in the presence of aqueous bodily fluid may increase condom usage and prevent the spread of HIV or other diseases.”
Grinstaff says that HEA/BP/PVP has already been used as a lubricant for medical devices such as tubes, but it will have to be approved for use on condoms, and for human trials, before it can hit the stores.
Royal Society Open Science
