Advantages Of Nanotechnology In Sunscreen

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid progress of technology and science, nanotechnology becomes a prominent accomplishment of the humanity. The ability to observe and comprehend the nanomaterial has a beneficial human to extend our knowledge in a variety range of industries and scientific endeavors.

Nanotechnology is defined as a structure that conducted the size of one nanometer to one hundred nanometers and it is invisible to the human eye. Nanotechnology allows the scientists to manipulate one particular particles property at a very small size and adapt it in any applications in real life (Understanding Nano, 2016). One of the applications that makes nanotechnology exceedingly successful is the use of nanomaterial in sunscreen

Sunscreen provides

Zinc oxide offers a strong protection from the UVA since it has a high absorption of the ultraviolet light level. In addition, titanium dioxide is a white pigment which has a high refractive index and brightness. Titanium dioxide is used as in sunscreen product as an effective UVB filter. With these properties, the mixture of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are used in treating skin condition such as sunscreen. These particles are called the microsized zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (average size is approximately 0.1–10.0 μm) (Ec.europa.eu, 2012).

Nevertheless, this combination of sunscreen leave a cosmetic drawback for sunscreen since it visible in the skin as an opaque layer and leave a thick and white residue in it. Because of this, the nanoparticles of ZnO and TiO2 were used in sunscreen (<100 nm) to replace the disadvantage of the microsized particles (Threes, Stanislav, 2011, p. #2).

These zinc oxide and titanium dioxide particles but fall into much smaller range can perform physically and chemically different to the large particles of that same material. These nanoscale particles have the high surface area to volume ratio, which creates a larger surface area and eventually increase the chemical reaction of the material. Figure 1 illustrates that nanoparticles stay on top of your skin and hard for the UV rays to pass through it (Threes, Stanislav, 2011, p.

It has been claimed that the nanomaterial helps to decrease the diameter and increasing the surface area to the volume of the particles. Nevertheless, this potentially makes the particles become more reactive than the normal materials. (Threes, Stanislav, 2011, p. #4). According to a recent report from Threes and Stanislav (2011, p. #2), these nanoparticles can cause the various types of toxicological and skin penetration.

In addition, researchers from the Australian Synchrotron discovered that the zinc oxide nanoparticles are broken down due to the existence of the human’s immune cells. The scientist used a macrophage which is a white blood cell in human’s body to interact with the nanoparticles. The result shows that within one day, the immune cells are able to destroy fifty to sixty percent of the nanoparticles, and the rest of it is under decomposition condition (Threes, Stanislav, 2011, p. #2).

CLINICAL TRIALS