Implementation of the Seeded Growth Method in Fabricating 3D-Printed Nanocomposite Contact Lenses for Selective Transmission

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are useful materials that may be used in a variety of applications such as colorblindness management, drug delivery, and bacteria reduction. When incorporated with optical lenses, GNPs cause an absorption dip in the transmission spectra of the lenses. Out of the aforementioned medical applications, colorblindness management is the most benefited from such spectra absorption as it can potentially block problematic wavelengths that patients suffer from and hence manage their colorblindness, where color vision deficiency (CVD), also known as colorblindness, is a congenital ocular disorder that has no current cure, and patients suffering from it rely on wearable aids that enhance their color perception by filtering out the certain wavelengths. Herein, customized gold nanocomposite contact lenses are fabricated via additive manufacturing to filter selective transmission wavelengths in the range of 540 and 560 nm. To allow selective filtering, seed-mediated synthesis of GNPs through nine growth steps is utilized to vary the GNPs’ size and plasmonic filtering properties. Thereafter, three contact lenses are fabricated with different GNPs concentrations and particle sizes. In the results of the study, it is indicated that the fabricated lenses can block certain wavelengths selectively while acquiring properties similar to commercially available eyewear.