Ethylene oxide-block-butylene oxide copolymer uptake by silicone hydrogel contact lens materials

Four major types of silicone hydrogel contact lens material have been investigated following treatments in aqueous solutions containing poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(butylenes oxide) block copolymer (EO–BO). The extent of lens surface modification by EO–BO and the degree of bulk uptake were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), respectively. The experimental results suggest that different interaction models exist for the lenses, highlighting the influence of both surface and bulk composition, which greatly differs between the lenses examined. Specifically, lenses with hydrophilic surface treatments, i.e., PureVision® (balafilcon A) and O2OPTIX (lotrafilcon B), demonstrated strong evidence of preferential surface adsorption within the near-surface region. In comparison, surface adsorption on ACUVUE® Oasys® (senofilcon A) and Biofinity® (comfilcon A) was limited. As for bulk absorption, the amount of EO–BO uptake was the greatest for balafilcon A and comfilcon A, and least for lotrafilcon B. These findings confirm the presence of molecular concentration gradients within the silicone hydrogel lenses following exposure to EO–BO solutions, with the nature of such concentration gradients found to be lens-specific. Together, the results suggest opportunities for compositional modifications of lenses for improved performance via solution treatments containing surface-active agents.