Colloidal and spherical mesoporous silica particles: synthesis and new technologies for delivery applications

Abstract

Continuous research in prominent fields such as biotechnology, biomedicine and nanopharmaceutics has brought the development of a widespread class of materials, and studies for mesoporous materials have been exponentially growing lately. The purpose of this review is to provide a useful guide for different materials, methods and configurations that have been reported in the last 5 years for the synthesis of spherical mesoporous silica particles (MSP), in the colloidal size range (1-1000 nm). MSP exhibit several limitations that must be overcome in order to enable their medical and clinical use. Surface modification of these particles will allow getting new promising characteristics of these materials, including better drug release control and biocompatibility improvement. These modified MSP could be potentially used in many biomedical applications, especially for drug delivery systems. Emphasis is made on the pore size, diameter and shape of the final particles since these parameters will establish key characteristics, i.e., drug delivery profile, loading capacity and efficiency. Graphical Abstract Spreading the use of mesoporous silica particles in biomedicine is possible by the improvement of its inner characteristics through surface modification. This may be done by chemical functionalization or by coating with macromolecular layers or brushes, thus creating novel responsive core-shell hybrid composites to be used as carriers for drug delivery applications.

Drug self-assembly for synthesis of highly-loaded antimicrobial drug-silica particles

“…The pore infiltration by a drug-carrying solvent is inherently limited by the drug solubility 16 , 35 , 42 – 45 . Alternatively, macromolecular layers and surface modifications are used to attract and trap drug molecules 30 , 46 . For example, loading the poorly-soluble anticancer drug camptothecin into 70% porous MSN, the 1.7 mg ml −1 drug-dimethyl sulfoxide solution will give a theoretical maximal loading of 0.2% wt.…”

A novel approach to the application of hexagonal mesoporous silica in solid-phase extraction of drugs

“…In recent years nanomaterials have been intended as an interesting device in isolation and extraction techniques due to their high surface area [22] which provided sufficient capacity for the adsorption of analytes. According to this, meso structures have attracted significant attention; and one of the well-known such materials is mesoporous silica (MS) which are typically synthesized by utilizing templating precursor mostly a surfactant-type agent and alkoxysilane precursors [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The inorganic framework would form around organic template which will be removed after silanization.…”

“…The inorganic framework would form around organic template which will be removed after silanization. By altering template structure different kinds of MS materials would be obtained like; SBA-15, HMS and MCM-41 while all types have high surfaces area [25] . Hexagonal mesoporous silica (HMS), are prepared through soft templating route by n -dodecyl amine as neutral long chain template which offer ease of removing [ 26 , 27 ].…”

Two-step sol–gel synthesis of mesoporous aluminosilicates: highly efficient catalysts for the preparation of 3,5-dialkylpyridines

“…Currently, sol-gel technology has become an integral feature of the modern practice of producing new materials with unique properties [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. It is the basis of the latest technologies for the preparation of high-temperature superconducting oxides [3], ceramic ultrafiltration membranes [4], optical [5] and anticorrosive coatings [6], new biomaterials [7], porous sorbents or carriers [8,9]. Furthermore, sol-gel synthesis is a powerful tool for controlling the formation of active sites and the porous structure of various heterogeneous catalysts at the stage of sol-gel processing [10,11].…”