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Plasmonic ‘Goldfinger’: antifungal nail polish with metallic nanoparticles

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A March 29,.2017 news item on Nanowerk announces a new kind of nanopolish,

Since ancient times, people have used lustrous silver, platinum and gold to make jewelry and other adornments. Researchers have now developed a new way to add the metals to nail polish with minimal additives, resulting in durable, tinted — and potentially antibacterial — nail coloring.

Using metal nanoparticles in clear nail polish makes it durable and colorful without extra additives.
Credit: American Chemical Society

A March 29, 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, adds a little more detail (Note: A link has been removed),

Nail polish comes in a bewildering array of colors. Current coloring techniques commonly incorporate pigment powders and additives. Scientists have recently started exploring the use of nanoparticles in polishes and have found that they can improve their durability and, in the case of silver nanoparticles, can treat fungal toenail infections. Marcus Lau, Friedrich Waag and Stephan Barcikowski wanted to see if they could come up with a simple way to integrate metal nanoparticles in nail polish.

The researchers started with store-bought bottles of clear, colorless nail polish and added small pieces of silver, gold, platinum or an alloy to them. To break the metals into nanoparticles, they shone a laser on them in short bursts over 15 minutes. Analysis showed that the method resulted in a variety of colored, transparent polishes with a metallic sheen. The researchers also used laser ablation to produce a master batch of metal nanoparticles in ethyl acetate, a polish thinner, which could then be added to individual bottles of polish. This could help boost the amount of production for commercialization. The researchers say the technique could also be used to create coatings for medical devices.

The authors acknowledge funding from the INTERREG-Program Germany-Netherlands.

A transparent nail varnish can be colored simply and directly with laser-generated nanoparticles. This does not only enable coloring of the varnish for cosmetic purposes, but also gives direct access to nanodoped varnishes to be used on any solid surface. Therefore, nanoparticle properties such as plasmonic properties or antibacterial effects can be easily adapted to surfaces for medical or optical purposes. The presented method for integration of metal (gold, platinum, silver, and alloy) nanoparticles into varnishes is straightforward and gives access to nanodoped polishes with optical properties, difficult to be achieved by dispersing powder pigments in the high-viscosity liquids. Courtesy: Industrial and Engineering & Chemistry Research

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Direct Integration of Laser-Generated Nanoparticles into Transparent Nail Polish: The Plasmonic “Goldfinger” by Marcus Lau, Friedrich Waag, and Stephan Barcikowski. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2017, 56 (12), pp 3291–3296 DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b00039 Publication Date (Web): March 7, 2017

Copyright © 2017 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

New thinking applied to nail polish

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According to a Dec. 15, 2012 news item on Nanowerk, a nanotechnology-enabled nail polish has received a provisional patent,

Nano Labs Corp. announced it has been awarded a provisional patent number61,735,705 for its original nano nail polish and lacquer, the third advanced nanotechnology product the Company has introduced in as many months.

“We’ve brought new thinking to a whole new product,” said Dr. Victor Castano, CEO of Innovation at Nano Labs. “The nano lacquer – or nail polish – is a nanohybrid compound, which is a rather new concept. In the past, bringing different chemical mixtures together could be problematic. … With the nail polish, we’ve taken ceramics – which provide excellent hardness and high scratch and chip resistance – and mixed them with polymer and metallic nano particles. The result is a material that is flexible but strong, non-toxic, and eco-friendly. Not to mention it can hold a great range of colours and sheen.”

Nano Labs promotes the nail polish as twice as durable conventional products. It dries to a very hard state, and resists shock, cracking, scratching, and chipping. It offers superior ease of application, quick drying film formation, and high coverage and adhesion, with bright, vivid colours and high gloss. It also offers the flexibility of a wide spectrum of colour – introduced at the nano level – with pigments including gold, silver, titanium, and other metals and oxides with a wide range of tones. Its elasticity allows for easy and effective application to nail curves without cracking. Nano Labs has also removed toxic solvents from the nail polish equation thanks to material that quickly evaporates, with no toxicity.

…

Nano Labs noticed that existing products produce a physical adhesion to the natural or plastic nail. The new nano nail polish produces a chemical adhesion which is about a 1,000 times stronger and requires significantly less coverage. Therefore you are getting a better color, coat, and longer-lasting finish.

The removal of the nail polish also required a new way of thinking. How to create a solution to remove the nano nail polish that wasn’t harsh on the nails or the person as traditional cleaners. While conventional nail polish removers will remove the nano nail polish, Dr. Castano and his team created a non-toxic, solvent which removes the nano nail polish without the traditional harsh effects and toxicity of conventional cleaners.

There are no more technical details in the news item or on the company (Nano Labs) website. In fact, the company website  doesn’t yet (as of Dec. 17, 2012 1000 hours PST) have a posted news release about this development. According to the news item on Nanowerk,

At the request of a major American manufacturer and distributor the company has completed its nano-technological lacquer research and filed patent applications (File Number – 61,735,705). Further disclosure will be made upon completion of the pending licensing agreement with the 3rd parties. [emphasis mine]

“The nano nail polish is a very important example of Nano Labs in action and the importance of our patents.” explains Mr. Bernardo Camacho, President of Nano Labs, “Without going into the technical data and formulas, there is a very narrow range of chemical properties, compositions, phase separations, and segregations that need to applied to create these types of products correctly. The only way to put these items together is in this narrow band, which is complicated, and is protected in our patent. [emphasis mine] We look forward to introducing the product to the global marketplace with partners in the cosmetic industry.”

The emphasis on the narrow band within which this nail polish innovation can occur and the company’s soon-to-be patent protection seems at odds with the company philosophy as stated by Dr. Castano,

“Our philosophy of green chemistry and using friendly organics allows us to focus on sustainable products that are less toxic and harmful to customers who are trending more and more toward healthier, environmentally sound consumer options,” Dr. Castano said.

The issue isn’t the patent so much as what appears to be an attempt by the company to ‘own’ all innovation in a niche they have defined in their patent. If the focus is “healthier, environmentally sound consumer options,” then surely, the company wants a patent that allows them to profit from their innovation while spurring more ‘green options’.

One final note, Nano Labs is a very young company having been founded in Oct. 2012.