The design of a silicone hydrogel can be accomplished following a variety of formulation avenues. A variety of different silicone monomers have been used. They can be classed into three categories: telechelic siloxane, the t-like Tris siloxane derivatives and the monofunctional-based silicones. It is desirable that the silicone prepolymers incorporate hydrophilic functional to impact improved compatibility with the hydrophilic comonomers. Wetting can be achieved either through plasma treatments, or ideally, through the design of an inherently wettable material. Both the patent and scientific literature describes many approaches for inherent wetting. The most successful approaches incorporate the use of the monomer NVP where it is added as a co-monomer during polymerization or added as a preformed high molecular weight P (NVP) to the monomer mix. In this research effort, a family of inherently wettable silicone hydrogels based on a carbamate-bridged monofunctional siloxane and N-vinylpyrrolidinone (NVP) was developed. The goal of this effort was to design materials possessing suitable mechanical and physical properties, such as modulus and oxygen permeability. It was also a key objective of this effort to design an inherently wettable silicone hydrogel having a low level of extractables, where ideally, the resultant lens material could be extracted with water only.

Monofunctional capped silicones for use in contact lens application

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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