Properties of Skin-Mimicking Films in Ionic Solutions

皮肤癌是最常见的癌症形式，加拿大每年有超过8万例皮肤癌病例。到2020年，防晒和防晒产业预计将达到145亿美元。加拿大Suncayr公司开发了独特的预防措施，以避免与过度暴露于紫外线辐射相关的常见问题。Suncayr正在创造一种指示器(贴纸)，当暴露在紫外线下时，它会改变颜色。当涂上防晒霜时，这种贴纸将向用户保证防晒霜何时不再具有保护作用。该产品有两个功能部件，其中一个是皮肤仿真膜(SMF)，它的行为类似于人类的皮肤。在游泳/出汗和毛巾后，应以类似于从人体皮肤上移除的速度将太阳屏从SMF表面移除。该公司发现，SMF无法在盐水中模拟涂有防晒霜的人体皮肤，这就需要研究壳聚糖/明胶基CMF在离子溶液中的性质。与淡水相比，了解SMF在咸水离子环境中的性能机理，将指导设计新的SMF配方和改进现有的SMF配方，并将导致成功商业化的新产品。森卡伊尔防晒霜技术的发展也将在提高加拿大在全球防晒霜和相关防晒品行业中的竞争力方面发挥作用。

Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer, with over 80,000 cases of skin cancer in Canada annually. Sunscreen and sunprotection industry is projected to reach $14.5 billion by 2020. Suncayr, a Canadian company, develops unique preventativemeasures to avoid the common problems associated with over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Suncayr is creating indicators(stickers) that change colour when exposed to ultraviolet light. This sticker when coated with a sunscreen will give the user theassurance as to when the sunscreen is no longer protective. The product has two functional parts, one of which is a skinmimickingfilm (SMF) that is designed to behave similarly to the human's skin. Upon swimming/sweating and toweling, thesunscreen should be removed from the SMF surface at a similar rate to how it is removed from the human skin. The company hasdiscovered that the SMF fails to mimic the sunscreen-coated human skin in salty water, which necessitates the study of theproperties of chitosan/gelatin-based CMFs in ionic solutions. Understanding of the mechanism of SMF properties in the ionicenvironment of salty water, in comparison with fresh water, will guide the design new and improvement of existing SMFformulations and will lead to new products that will be successfully commercialized. The development of Suncayrs technologieswill also play a role in increasing Canadas competitiveness in the global sunscreen and related sun protection industry.