A safer, coral-friendly sunscreen is on the horizon

A strategy for making innovative new sunscreens with molecules large enough to block UV radiation but too big to penetrate skin, coral or algae, has been developed by researchers in China. Animal tests have demonstrated that this polymeric UV filter is more effective than already-existing sunscreens at preventing sunburn in mice. In contrast, the more common organic UV filters in sunscreens have small molecular weights that can disrupt marine environments.

‘This is an initial exploration of a new strategy to design bio-friendly and coral-friendly polymeric UV filters,’ explained Lei Tao, a chemist at Tsinghua University who is the study’s senior author. He expressed hope that this research can help spawn a new generation of sunscreens.