Glass vs.

hydrogel contact lenses

The first sketches for contact lenses where in 1508 by inventor Leonardo da Vinci. Since then there have been made out of glass and more recently made out of hydrogel. Many people haved argued over which better glass or hydrogels. There many things that you want a contact lens to have the main four are to make sure that it is insoluble, strong and wont brake in the eye, transparent to see out of and doesnt cause irritation to the eye. Glass: The glass that is used in contact lenses is flat glass also known as flat glass. Is has the chemical compound of SiO 2. Flat glass has a melting point of 17000c and its state at this temperature is like syrup. The basic building block of silica has a tetrahedral pyramid shape with silicon at its centre linked symmetrically to four oxygen atoms at its corners: it has the chemical formula SiO4 and is negatively charged. On cooling molten silica quickly, a random organised network of these tetrahedra are formed, linked at their corners, to give an amorphous material known as vitreous silica.

For practical and economic reasons, the high melting point and viscosity of silica is reduced by adding sodium oxide (a flux) in the form of a carbonate and the sodium-oxygen atoms enter the silicon-oxygen network, in accordance with their valency states. These atoms are known as Network Formers. Other major constituents of Flat Glass: Calcium and Magnesium enter the network structure as Network Modifiers and the action of these modifiers is to make the structures more complex so that when the components are melted together, in the cooling process, it is more difficult for the atoms to arrange themselves in suitable configurations for crystallisation to occur. In the glass making process, the cooling rate is arranged such that viscosity increases and the mobility of the atoms is hindered thus preventing arrangements and crystallisation from occurring. Thus glass is often referred to as a supercooled liquid in that it has no

crystallisation or melting point and does not exhibit the phenomenon of the

latent heat of crystallisation or fusion. Glass is transparent because it is an amorphous solid. This is a state of matter in which the atoms and molecules are locked into place, but instead of forming neat, orderly crystals, they arrange themselves randomly. As a result, glass contacts are solid and arent flexible, yet have the disordered arrangement of molecules like liquids. Amorphous solids form when a solid substance is melted at high temperatures and then cooled rapidly -- a process known as quenching. Glass contact lenses in the past have been irritable to the eye. It may have been fine at first but after 3 to 4 hours there is a sharp pain in the eye. This is due to the fact because the eye gets oxygen through absorbing it from the atmosphere and because of glasses molecular structure air cant get through causing the eye to starve of oxygen. Hydrogel: A hydrogel is an example of a smart material. It can change its structure in response to salt concentration, pH and temperature. Hydrogels are cross linked polymers that have hydrophillic groups. They are often polymers containing carboxylic acid groups. One common polymer used to make hydrogels is sodium polyacrylate. The chemical name for this polymer is poly (sodium propenoate).

The polymer chains usually exist in the shape of randomly coiled molecules. In the absence of Na+ ions (if you remove all the salt) the negative charges on the

oxide ions along the polymer chain all repel each other and the chains tend to uncoil as shown in the picture below.

Water molecules are attracted to the negative charges by hydrogen bonding.

In this state the hydrogel can absorb over five hundred times its own weight of pure water but less salty water. This ability to absorb so much water makes the hydrogel useful for the contact lenses. When salt is added to the hydrogel, the chains start to change their shape and water is lost from the gel. Because hydrogel is an absorbent air can get through the hydrogel and in to the eye so the eye wont starve for oxygen and the contact can be worn longer and more comfortably. From this information I believe (and many others) that hydrogel is a better product to use for contact lenses. Even though both glass and hydrogel are

insoluble, strong, transparent hydrogel is more comfortable for the wearer and in easily replaceable.