Site Editor
Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Thursday, March 24, 2022
Although many sunscreens are commercially available, safety and efficacy concerns surround some of the products currently on the market. A study published in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology examined the ultraviolet filter characteristics of several zinc-based metal–organic frameworks, identifying zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as the compound with the highest and widest ultraviolet reflectance. Metal-organic frameworks are hybrid polymers formed with metal nodes and organic ligands that are predominantly used in gas absorption and separation, catalysis, sensing, and biomedicine.
“All these results demonstrate that zinc-based metal–organic frameworks could potentially be a suitable platform to develop sunscreens through tuning [ultraviolet] reflectance and other characteristics, such as hydrophobicity, stability, and photocatalytic activity,” reported Xiaopin Duan, PhD, of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues.
In this study, the researchers investigated the optical behaviors of four zinc-based metal–organic frameworks with various bandgap energies—ZIF-8, Zn3L3DMF2, metal–organic framework 5, and isoreticular metal–organic framework 1—and evaluated their potential as sunscreens. ZIF-8 showed the highest and widest scattering of ultraviolet A and B, protecting against sunburn and DNA damage on mouse skin. This compound achieved comparable or higher antiultraviolet efficacy relative to commercially available ultraviolet filters (titanium oxide and zinc oxide) on pig skin. ZIF-8 also showed appealing characteristics for topical skin use with low radical production, low skin penetration, low toxicity, high transparency, and high stability.
“These results confirmed ZIF-8 could potentially be a safe and effective sunscreen surrogate for humans, and metal-organic frameworks could be a novel source to develop more effective and safe ultraviolet filters,” concluded the authors.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
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