A Bioinspired Skin UV Filter with Broadband UV Protection, Photostability, and Resistance to Oxidative Damage

In recent years, sunscreens’ adverse impacts on the environment and biology have gained wide attention. The improvement of sunscreen safety has become one of the major priorities in skin photoprotection research. It is an effective strategy to develop bionic photoprotective materials by simulating the photoprotective mechanism existing in nature. Inspired by the photoprotective mechanisms of skin and plant leaves, the bionic photoprotective material CS-SA-PDA nanosheet was developed using the free radical grafting method and Michael addition, with natural melanin analogue polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticles and plant sunscreen molecular sinapic acid (SA) as sun protection factors and natural polymer chitosan (CS) as the connecting arm. The results show that CS-SA-PDA can effectively shield UVB and UVA due to the possible synergistic effect between PDA and SA. The introduction of polymer CS significantly improved the photostability of SA and reduced the skin permeability of PDA nanoparticles. The CS-SA-PDA nanosheet can also effectively scavenge photoinduced free radicals. Furthermore, in vivo toxicity and anti-UV evaluations confirm that CS-SA-PDA has no skin irritation and is excellent against skin photodamage, which makes it an ideal skin photoprotective material.