Properties of Skin-Mimicking Films in Ionic Solutions

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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.