Characterization and analysis of extended-wear silicone hydrogel contact lenses utilizing novel silicone macromers.

Contact lenses are one of the most successful biomaterials in history with a global market estimated to be worth over $17 billion in 2025. Silicone hydrogel contact lenses dominate the market and are complex biphasic biomaterials with several critical material properties needed for clinical use. Careful consideration of composition and chemistry is needed to identify formulations of lenses meeting all commercial standards with the potential for improved manufacturability, cost, and/or next generation use.

Applications of Hybrid Polymers Generated from Living Anionic Ring Opening Polymerization.

Increasingly precise control of polymer architectures generated by "Living" Anionic Ring-Opening Polymerization (Living AROP) is leading to a broad range of commercial advanced material applications, particularly in the area of siloxane macromers. While academic reports on such materials remain sparse, a significant portion of the global population interacts with them on a daily basis-in applications including medical devices, microelectronics, food packaging, synthetic leather, release coatings, and pigment dispersions. The primary driver of this increased utilization of siloxane macromers is their ability to incorporate the properties of silicones into organic structures in a balanced manner.

Soft Materials with Recoverable Shape Factors from Extreme Distortion States.

Elastomeric polysiloxane nanocomposites with elongations of >5000% (more than 3× greater than any previously reported material) with excellent shape recovery are presented. Highly deformable materials are desirable for the fabrication of stretchable implants and microfluidic devices. No crosslinking or domain formation is observed by a variety of analytical techniques, suggesting that their elastomeric behavior is caused by polymer chain entanglements.