Otto Wichterle - Prototype Development

Prototype Development

From that time he devoted himself to studying of the synthesis of cross-linking hydrophilous gels, with the aim of finding a material suitable for employment in permanent contact with living tissues. Wichterle accepted the help of one of his colleagues, Drahoslav Lím, and together they succeeded in preparing a cross-linking gel which absorbed up to 40% of water, exhibited suitable mechanical properties and was transparent. This new material was the Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA), that they patented in 1953. Wichterle thought pHEMA might be a suitable material for contact lenses and gained his first patent for soft contact lenses. On 1954 this material was first used as an orbital implant. On 1957 Wichterle produced around 100 soft lenses from closed polystyrene moulds but the edges split and tore as the lenses were removed. In addition, they required hand finishing. He was determined to find a better way. Unfortunately, Wichterle and other prominent teachers had to leave the Institute of Chemical Technology after a political purge staged by its Communist leadership 1958. Research into contact eye lenses at the Institute of Chemical Technology came to an end. The International Symposium on Macromolecular Chemistry held in Prague in 1957 convinced the state leadership of the need to establish a centre for research into synthetic polymers. The Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (CSAS) came into being in 1958, with Professor Wichterle appointed its director. Since the institute's building was under construction at that time, Professor Wichterle conducted the decisive experiments to transform hydrogels into a suitable shape of a contact lens at his own home.