• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2009

We manufactured PVA-derived hydrogels using a foam generation technique that has been widely used to prepare colloidal gas aphrons(CGA). These gels were differentiated to the conventional gels such as for medical or pharmaceutical applications, which have tiny pores and some crystalline structure. Rather these should be used in de-pollution devices or adhesion of cells or biomolecules. The crosslinkers used in this work were amino acid, organic acid, sugars and lipids(vitamins). The structures of the gels were observed in a scanned electron microscope. Amino acids gels showed remarkably higher swelling ratios probably because their typical functional groups help constructing a highly crosslinked network along with hydrogen bonds. Boric acid and starch would catalyze dehydration while structuring to result in much lower water content and accordingly high gel content, leading to less elastic, hard gels. Bulky materials such as ascorbic acid or starch produced, in general, large pores in the matrices and also nicotinamide, having large hydrophobic patches was likely to enlarge pore size of its gels as well since the hydrophobicity would expel water molecules, thus leading to reduced swelling. Hydrophilicity(or hydrophobicity), functional groups which are involved in the reaction or physical linkage, and bulkiness of crosslinkers were found to be more critical to gel's cross linking structure and its density than molecular weights that seemed to be closely related to pore sizes. Microscopic observation revealed that pores were more or less homogeneous and their average sizes were $20{\mu}m$ for methionine, $10-15{\mu}m$ for citric acid, $50-70{\mu}m$ for L-ascorbic acid, $30-40{\mu}m$ for nicotinamide, and $70-80{\mu}m$ for starch. Also a sensory test showed that amino acid and glucose gels were more elastic meanwhile acid and nicotinamide gels turned out to be brittle or non-elastic at their high concentrations. The elasticity of a gel was reasonably correlated with its water content or swelling ratio. In addition, the PVA gel including 20% ascorbic acid showed fair ability of cell adherence as 0.257mg/g-hydrogel and completely degraded phenanthrene(10 mM) in 240 h.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2014

Purpose: The functional ophthalmic lenses containing fluorine-substituted aniline group (2,4-difluoroaniline, 2,6-difluoroaniline, 3,4-difluoroaniline) were manufactured and the physical and optical characteristics of copolymerized ophthalmic lens were investigated. Methods: HEMA (2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate), NVP (N-vinyl pyrrolidone), MA (methacrylic acid), the cross-linker EGDMA (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) and the initiator AIBN (azobisisobutyronitrile) were used as a basic combination and fluorine-substituted aniline group (2,4-difluoroaniline, 2,6-difluoroaniline, 3,4-difluoroaniline) were used as additives for preparing the hydrogel soft contact lenses. The hydrogel ophthalmic lens was manufactured by cast mould method and the ophthalmic lenses were stored in a 0.9% NaCl normal saline for 24 hrs. Results: The optical transmittance of the sample with addition 2,4-difluoroaniline showed that the UV-B(9.8~51.4%), UV-A(58.8~79.2%) and visible transmittance(87.0~90.4%). In the case of 2,6-difluoroaniline were measured the UV-B(80.2~83.2%), UV-A(85.8~86.4%), and visible transmittance(90.8~91.4%). Also, the optical transmittance of ophthalmic lens containing 3,4-difluoroaniline were measured the UV-B transmittance of 3.8~30.4%, UV-A transmittance of 47.8%~74.4% and the visible transmittance of 86.2~91.0% respectively. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, 2,4-difluoroaniline and 3,4-difluoroaniline can be used effectively as additive for UV-blocking ophthalmic contact lenses.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.437-443
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• 2015

Purpose: This study evaluated the optical and physical and characteristics of soft contact lens polymerized with addition of 3-chloropyridine-4-carboxylic acid and 3-fluoropyridine-4-carboxylic acid in the basic hydrogel contact lens material. In particular, the utility of 3-chloropyridine-4-carboxylic acid and 3-fluoropyridine- 4-carboxylic acid as a hydrogel contact lens material was investigated. Methods: In this study, 3-chloropyridine-4-carboxylic acid and 3-fluoropyridine-4-carboxylic acid were used as additives. Also, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, acrylic acid, methyl methacrylate and a cross-linker EGDMA were co-polymerized in the presence of AIBN as an initiator. Results: The physical properties of the produced polymers were measured as followings. The water content of 34.54~37.15%, refractive index of 1.4320~1.4342, tensile strength of 0.2872~0.3608 kgf and contact angle of $57.82{\sim}79.57^{\circ}$, UV-B transmittance of 76.8~82.4% and UV-A transmittance of 84.6~86.6% were obtained respectively. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, contact lens material containing 3-chloropyridine-4-carboxylic acid and 3-fluoropyridine-4-carboxylic acid is expected to be able to used as a material for high wettability and UV-block hydrogel contact lens.