Purpose: The optical and physical characteristics of hydrogel soft contact lens polymerized with various hydroxy substituted acrylate material were evaluated. Methods: This study used HEMA(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), HEA(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate), HPMA(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) with the cross-linker EGDMA(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) and the initiator AIBN(azobisisobutyronitrile) for copolymerization. The polymerization of the contact lens material was conducted through thermal polymerization in 100℃ for about 1 hours. Results: The polymer by using thermal polymerization process for hydrogel lens was produced and the physical properties showed that the water content of the sample containing HEMA, HEA and HPMA was in the average of 37.06%, 82.12% and 21.57%, respectively. And also, refractive index of the sample containing HEMA, HEA and HPMA was in the average of 1.4330, 1.3540 and 1.4649, respectively. In case of the optical properties of the sample, the result showed that the near-UV transmittance was 82.67%, 80.32% and 79.83%, and the visible transmittance was 89.72%, 88.24% and 86.89%, respectively. Conclusions: Consequently, polymerization of the hydroxy substituted acrylate material was more shorten the molecular length, increased water content and decreased the refractive index of the soft contact lens.

• Min-Jae Lee(Dept. of Optometry & Vision Science, Catholic University)
• A-Young Sung(Dept. of Optometry & Vision Science, Catholic University)