Preparation of hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres: controllable template synthesis and their application in drug delivery

Abstract

Hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres were prepared using different types of templates such as iron oxide nanoparticles (magnetite and hematite) and polymer nanospheres (polystyrene and resorcinol formaldehyde resin). The process involves a first step of coating silica on templates along with surfactants and then removal of both templates and surfactants to produce hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres in the second step. TEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, and N₂-adsorption–desorption analysis were used to characterize the samples and indicated the hollow and mesoporous structure of silica nanospheres. Ibuprofen as a drug model was used to investigate the drug adsorption behavior of the silica nanospheres which also showed sustained release properties.