More comfortable contact lenses

1999/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

A group of American chemists have created a new polymeric material for contact lenses. Contact lenses made with this material will be much more comfortable and the risk of infections will be lower.

Scientists have used hydrogels, materials made up of fine polymer networks. These networks have the ability to absorb water, resulting in soft compounds.

The more water absorbed, the softer they are made, making them ideal for eye contact lenses, available to the chemist Ravi Mukkamala of the company Rohm and Texas Inc. of Houston. So far water-absorbing materials also attracted protein, producing eye infections and deteriorating vision. To avoid this phenomenon, Mukkamala and his companions have used sulfoxides instead of ions. Sulfoxides, due to their high polarity, attract water, but unlike ions, do not attract charged proteins.