%0 Journal Article
%T A Comparative Cytotoxic Evaluation of Acrylamide and Diacetone Acrylamide to Investigate Their Suitability for Holographic Photopolymer Formulations
%A Dervil Cody
%A Alan Casey
%A Izabela Naydenova
%A Emilia Mihaylova
%J International Journal of Polymer Science
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/564319
%X The comparative cytotoxic evaluation of two monomers, diacetone acrylamide (DA) and acrylamide (AA) used in holographic photopolymer formulations, is reported. Two normal cell lines were used: BEAS-2B and HaCaT. Cellular viability was assessed using the MTT assay for three different exposure times. A difference of two orders of magnitude is observed in the lethal dose (LD50) concentrations of the two monomers. Diacetone acrylamide exhibits a significantly lower toxicity profile in comparison to acrylamide at all exposure times. This result justifies the replacement of acrylamide with diacetone acrylamide in the photopolymer formulation, with the view to reducing occupational hazard risks for large-scale holographic device fabrication. A comparative study investigating the holographic recording ability of the two photopolymers in transmission mode showed that the DA photopolymer is capable of reaching refractive index modulation values of , which is 80% of the refractive index modulation achieved by the AA photopolymer. This makes the DA-based photopolymers suitable for a wide range of applications. 1. Introduction Photopolymer materials are widely researched for a variety of holographic applications such as diffractive optics and holographic data storage. One of the most promising new applications in recent years is the development of ¡°smart holograms¡± for use as biosensors [1¨C8]. Holographic photopolymers have so far been used in the development of sensors which monitor changes in the relative humidity and temperature of their environment, as well as sensors which respond to the presence of toxic gases such as toluene [9¨C12]. Acrylamide (AA), a main component of the standard photopolymer composition, is carcinogenic and toxic in its monomer form. This toxicity has been extensively investigated, using both in vivo and in vitro methods [13¨C19]. An extensive study into the chemical and biochemical safety of AA carried out by Friedman [20] found that AA is involved in reactions with proteins such as haemoglobin, enzymes, and DNA. A recent development has been the replacement of AA with a nontoxic monomer diacetone acrylamide (DA) in the photopolymer composition [21, 22]. This has been done to reduce the potential occupational and environmental hazards involved in future large-scale material development and device fabrication. The new material¡¯s holographic recording capability has already been shown to surpass that of other reported low-toxicity photopolymer alternatives [23¨C26]. A comparative study into the in vitro cytotoxicity of DA and AA has been
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/2013/564319/