English

Rapid underwater bonding of clear polycarbonate to metal or plastic substrates at temperatures approaching 0 °C was studied. Bonding was achieved within minutes using ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate gel cured using the photoinitiator (dibenzoylferrocene) with a blue-LED light source. The optimum initiator concentration varied from 0.3% to 0.1 wt % for adhesive films 0.5 to 1.2 mm thick, respectively. The polymerisation rate shows a negative temperature dependence making it highly suitable for cold environments.

The use of “purified” cooling agents in pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations only dates back to the late 1880s with the commercial production of menthol from Japanese peppermint (Mentha arvensis) oil in Japan (1). The cultivation of peppermint in Japan before the Christian era appears to predate any other country, and menthol is reputed to have been used medicinally for almost as long (2). In the Western world, it was about 1770 that the Dutch botanist, H. David Gaubius, first isolated menthol from the oil of Mentha piperita in Utrecht (2,3).

A method is disclosed for the catalytic polymerization of cyanoacrylate monomers by contacting said monomers with an organotin compound. Also included is a polymerizable system comprising cyanoacrylate monomer and an organotin compound, wherein upon contact of the monomer and the compound, the compound catalyzes the polymerization of the monomer.

A fingernail adhesive including a mixture of less than 1 % halogen-nitropropane as a fungicide and a cyanoacrylate adhesive. Preferably the halogen-nitropropane is bromo-nitropropane and the cyanoacrylate adhesive is selected from the group consisting of isopropyl, ethyl and methyl cyanoacrylate and mixtures thereof.

A process, requiring minimal skills, for applying a protective acrylic coating, with or without extending the tips, to the human fingernail as afforded by (1) clearing and roughening the surface of the nail, (2) applying a layer of liquid acrylic monomer, (3) applying a powdered polymethacrylate ester to the wetted nail surface, (4) removing loose powder and smoothing the nail surface, (5) brushing on, as one would with nail polish, a second layer of liquid acrylic monomers and, after curing, (6) finishing the nail in the conventional manner.

An artificial fingernail material is disclosed. It contains base-treated bone powder of a particular particle size in a curable adhesive. A process for applying this material to the nail by applying an adhesive, adding bone powder and repeating as needed is disclosed as is the process for preparing the particular bone powder.