An investigation of the effect of silicone oil on polymer intraocular lenses by means of PALS, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopies

• The influence of PDMS oil on polymeric ophthalmological materials was investigated.
• The changes of free volumes in hydrogel material were noted.
• No significant changes were observed in hydrophobic material.
• Structural changes in both materials affected by oil were discussed in details.
• Results obtained by PALS method were confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy.

The effect of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based silicone oil, that is widely used in vitreoretinal surgery, on internal structures of the polymer intraocular lenses was investigated. The effect of PDMS was studied on the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) rigid lenses and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) flexible lenses. The research was carried out by means of the positron lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) as well as the infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the Raman spectroscopy (RS). The studies involving the use of PALS and FT-IR methods have revealed that the PHEMA based lenses absorbed, whereas the PMMA lenses did not absorb, silicone oil. The results obtained with the use of the RS method were inconclusive, probably due to the too low intensity of the characteristic PDMS bands. The evidence from this study was discussed in terms of physics and related to the clinical use of both silicone oil and intraocular lenses.

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