• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.135-141
• /
• 2012

Purpose: Polymerization of HEMA(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) which can be used in the soft contact lens has been performed by using electron beam(EB) irradiation, and examined the best condition for the polymerization. Comparing the physical properties of the contact lenses to the one fabricated by thermal polymerization method, we check the use possibility of the EB irradiation to the fabrication of the soft contact lens. Methods: We investigated the degree of polymerization of the HEMA according to the composition of the monomer, the additive ratio and the dose of electron beam (0~120 kGy). The degree of polymerization was measured depending on the EB dose to research the best synthetic condition under the EB irradiation. The physical properties of the contact lens such as water content(%), oxygen transmissibility(Dk/t) and optical transmittance were analysed by using the FT-IR results with comparing the two different polymerization method (thermal and electron beam polymerization) with same additive ratio. Results: When the dose of electron beam was above 100 kGy, the degree of polymerization of HEMA was above 99% with regardless using cross-linker and initiator. The water content of the lens fabricated by EB method showed 10% higher than the one by the thermal method which was 40%. The lens fabricated by EB method also showed higher oxygen transmissibility(Dk/t) as same with the water content, and showed twice higher value in the lens fabricated by pure HEMA. According to the FT-IR results, hydrophilic property of the lens fabricated by EB method was increased due to increasing the intermolecular hydrogen bonding. It showed above 90% optical transmittance in the visible range of wavelength on the contact lenses fabricated by the both of two different polymerization method. Conclusions: The polymerization of HEMA without cross-linker and initiator was successful above 100 kGy of EB irradiation. Moreover the lens fabricated from the polymer synthesized by pure HEMA with 100 kGy of EB showed the highest water content and oxygen transmissibility. Therefore EB irradiation is another possible method to synthesize the polymer which can be used for the soft contact lens.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.56 no.5
• /
• pp.597-602
• /
• 2012

The copolymerization of triacetoxyvinylsilane, EGDMA (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker), HEMA (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), MMA (methyl methacrylate), MA (methacrylic acid) was performed in the presence of AIBN (2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile) as an initiator. Measurement of the physical properties of the resulting copolymers showed that water content, refractive index, visible ray transmittance, and tensile strength were in the range of 35.63~32.44%, 1.4382~1.4480, 89.0~92.5% and 0.346~0.674 kgf, respectively. The values of tensile strength of copolymers-containing hexamethylene diisocyanate were higher than those of the copolymers containing triacetoxyvinylsilane. From the results we came to the conclusion that the produced copolymers are suitable for the application of ophthalmic contact lens with high tensile strength, wettability and duraility.