H. Butt
Khalifa University,
United Arab Emirates
Keywords: 3D printing, nanocomposites, contact lenses
Summary:
Multimaterial 3D printing is a promising technique that has attracted a wide range of research interests lately. Several 3D printing techniques enable multi-material printing, including fused deposition modelling, material extrusion, and vat photopolymerisation. However, for the purpose of optical applications, Digital Light Processing (DLP) technique is the most suited process [1]. DLP is a sub-variety of vat photopolymerisation that uses an appropriate light projection technology to project UV light in 2D patterns on the vat. It has excellent resolution, clean surface quality and minimal scattering losses. There have only been a few studies on using multimaterial 3D printing for producing optical applications, including multipurpose contact lenses. In this study, we investigate the possibility of 3D printing multi-material disks and contact lenses composed of a combination of distinct dyes and nanomaterials, each of which may be used to treat specific forms of colour blindness. The investigation explores how printing with two (or more) different tinted and nanocomposite materials affects the optical characteristics of these printed hydrogel contact lenses (Figure 1). The optical transmission/absorption, swelling and dye leakage characteristics are studied for this purpose. The produced multimaterial hydrogels are finally compared with commercial glasses available for colour vision deficiency.