Contact lenses are worn by over 140 million people each year and tremendous research and development efforts contribute to the identification and selection of hydrogel components and production protocols to yield lenses optimized for chemical and physiological properties, eye health and comfort. The final molecular composition and extent of incorporation of different components in contact lenses is routinely estimated after lens production through the analysis of the soluble components that were not included in the lens, i.e. remaining starting materials. Examination of composition in the actual intact materials is always valued and can reveal details that are missed by only examining the non-incorporated components, for example identifying chemical changes to components in lenses during the production process. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the direct compositional analysis of insoluble and heterogeneous materials and is also uniquely suited to determining parameters of architecture in contact lenses. We utilized ¹³C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR to examine and compare the carbon composition of soft contact lenses. ¹³C NMR spectra of individual polymer components enabled the determination of the approximate molecular carbon contributions of major lens components. Comparisons of the conventional etafilcon A hydrogel (1 Day Acuvue MOIST) lenses and silicone hydrogel lenses (Acuvue Oasys, Dailies Total 1, Clariti 1 Day, Biofinity, and Pure Vision) revealed major spectral differences, with considerable variation even among different silicone hydrogel lenses. The solid-state NMR approach provides a direct spectral reporting of carbon types in the hydrogel lens itself. This approach represents a valuable complementary analysis to benefit contact lens research and development and could be extended to isotopically labeled hydrogel lenses to map proximities and architecture between hydrogel components.

每年有超过1.4亿人佩戴隐形眼镜，巨大的研究和开发工作为水凝胶成分和生产方案的识别和选择做出了贡献，以生产出针对化学和生理特性，眼睛健康和舒适度优化的镜片。在隐形眼镜生产之后，通常通过分析隐形眼镜中不包含的可溶性成分，即剩余的起始原料，来最终估计隐形眼镜中最终分子的组成和不同成分的掺入程度。检验实际完整材料中的成分始终是有价值的，并且可以通过仅检查未掺入的成分来揭示遗漏的细节，例如，确定生产过程中镜片中成分的化学变化。固态核磁共振（NMR）光谱仪是直接对不溶性和异质材料进行成分分析的强大工具，并且还非常适合确定隐形眼镜的结构参数。我们利用¹³ C交叉极化魔角旋转（CPMAS）NMR检查和比较软性隐形眼镜的碳成分。¹³单个聚合物组分的13 C NMR光谱能够确定主要镜片组分的近似分子碳贡献。常规etafilcon A水凝胶（1天Acuvue MOIST）镜片与有机硅水凝胶镜片（Acuvue Oasys，Dailies Total 1，Clariti 1 Day，Biofinity和Pure Vision）的比较显示出主要的光谱差异，即使在不同的有机硅水凝胶镜片之间也存在很大差异。固态NMR方法提供了水凝胶镜片本身中碳类型的直接光谱报告。这种方法代表了一种有益的补充分析，可有益于隐形眼镜的研究和开发，并可扩展至同位素标记的水凝胶镜片，以绘制水凝胶成分之间的邻近度和结构。