Polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate

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"PHEMA" redirects here. For the Greek goddess, see Pheme.
Polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate
IUPAC name

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)

Other names

PHEMA, Hydron

Identifiers
CAS number 25249-16-5
PubChem 24898472
Properties
Molecular formula (C6H10O3)n
Molar mass variable
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C (77 °F), 100 kPa)
Infobox references

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) is a polymer that forms a hydrogel in water. It was invented by Drahoslav Lim and Otto Wichterle for biological use.[1] Together they succeeded in preparing a cross-linking gel which absorbed up to 40% of water, exhibited suitable mechanical properties and was transparent. They patented this material in 1953.

Applications

On 1954 this material was first used as an optical implant. Wichterle thought pHEMA might be a suitable material for contact lenses and gained his first patent for soft contact lenses. By late 1961 he succeeded in producing the first four pHEMA hydrogel contact lenses on a home-made apparatus. Copolymers of pHEMA are still widely used today. Poly-HEMA functions as a hydrogel by rotating around its central carbon. In air, the non-polar methyl side turns outward, making the material brittle and easy to grind into the correct lens shape. In water, the polar hydroxyethyl side turns outward and the material becomes flexible. Pure pHEMA yields lenses that are too thick for sufficient oxygen to diffuse through, so all contact lenses that are pHEMA based are manufactured with copolymers that make the gel thinner and increase its water of hydration.[2] These copolymer hydrogel lenses are often suffixed "-filcon", such as Methafilcon, which is a copolymer of hydroxyethyl methacrylate and methyl methacrylate.

References

  1. ↑ Wichterle, O.; Lím, D. (9 January 1960). "Hydrophilic Gels for Biological Use". Nature 185 (4706): 117–118. doi:10.1038/185117a0. Retrieved 5 October 2011. 
  2. ↑ Ratner, Buddy D. (2004). Biomaterials Science, An Introduction to Materials in Medicine. Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-582463-7. 
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