A recently published study has provided a substitute, laser protection glasses, combining gold nanoparticles within contact lenses.
As indicated in an AZoNano report, with laser-based devices currently being widely utilized within numerous industries like laboratories, medicine, and entertainment, there has been a rise in several accidental eye injuries.
The degree of such eye injuries resulting from laser exposure relies on the power, exposure duration, and wavelength.
Essentially, ultraviolet or UV radiation, which comprises roughly 180 to 400 nm wavelengths, does not reach the retina because of being absorbed in the eye lens and cornea. Consequently, this lessens the impairments to the retina and can instead lead to a lens or corneal injury.
In addition, further infrared wavelengths like those that pertain to 1400 nm to one mm, are absorbed by the water within the cornea, leading to a corneal burn.
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A new study has provided a substitute, laser protection glasses through the combination of gold nanoparticles within contact lenses.
Laser-Protective Soft Contact Lenses Combined with Nanomaterials
Visible light, which consists of 400 to 700 nm and near-infrared that includes 760 to 1400 nm wavelengths, can be damaging, too, and are transferred through the lens and cornea, leading to probable radiation overdose on the retina, the eye's most vulnerable part.
While the essentiality to shield from such damages has resulted in the development of various laser-attenuating devices, goggles, and glasses, this preventive equipment's function can be inconvenient or not accessible for round-the-clock service for several industries.
Study into laser-protective contact lenses combined with nanomaterials may offer an everyday substitute. Remarkably, laser-protective goggles and glasses function by using heavy metal ions o colloidal particles integrated into the glass filters, not to mention adding dyes into polymeric materials during polymerization.
Gold Nanoparticles in Soft Contact Lenses
Authors of the study, published in the journal, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, have carried out innovative research in this field to develop laser-productive soft contact lenses that encompass nanomaterials.
While there have been past research studies of graphene-coated contact lenses for electromagnetic interference protection, poly hydroxyethyl methacrylate soft contact lenses with Au-based silica-shell nanocapsules content for the wide wavelength range's attenuation, which include gold nanoparticles for such an application novel.
The gold nanoparticles' function is optimal since they are below 100 nm, have distinctive surface and optical properties, and most essentially, do not lead to ocular toxicity, making them ideal for a combination within contact lenses.
The study authors used gold nanoparticles that show a local maximum absorbing characteristic as a tunable wavelength of roughly 520 nm for 12 nm particles because of the localized surface plasmon resonance or LSPR effect. This allows the eyes' protection from accidental impairment from a green laser.
PVA Contact Lenses
The gold particles used were combined in a PVA or polyvinyl alcohol contact lens because of its advantageous traits like stabilizing the particles while being manufactured by the so-called Turkevich method, not to mention high compatibility water content.
The sought-after concentration was attained through anti-solvent participation and redispersion. Furthermore, particles have then cross-linked cycling known as freezing-thawing to generate the PVA contact lenses eventually; as a result, that's loaded with the gold nanoparticles also identified as PVA GoldinLens. In connection to this, GoldInLens is detailed on the Colorado School of Mines website.
The study authors also pursued one more route that used commercial lenses and the incorporation of gold nanoparticles.
Related information about gold nanoparticles is shown on Expedeon's YouTube video below:
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