Streamlined Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Tunable Curvature from Interfacial Dynamic-Migration Strategy for Nanomotors

Abstract

Streamlined architectures with a low fluid-resistance coefficient have been receiving great attention in various fields. However, it is still a great challenge to synthesize streamlined architecture with tunable surface curvature at the nanoscale. Herein, we report a facile interfacial dynamic migration strategy for the synthesis of streamlined mesoporous nanotadpoles with varied architectures. These tadpole-like nanoparticles possess a big streamlined head and a slender tail, which exhibit large inner cavities (75−170 nm), high surface areas (424−488 m 2 g −1 ), and uniform mesopore sizes (2.4−3.2 nm). The head curvature of the streamlined mesoporous nanoparticles can be well-tuned from ∼2.96 × 10 −2 to ∼5.56 × 10 −2 nm −1 , and the tail length can also be regulated from ∼30 to ∼650 nm. By selectively loading the Fe 3 O 4 catalyst in the cavity of the streamlined silica nanotadpoles, the H 2 O 2 -driven mesoporous nanomotors were designed. The mesoporous nanomotors with optimized structural parameters exhibit outstanding directionality and a diffusion coefficient of 8.15 μm 2 s −1 .

Nanoarchitectured prototypes of mesoporous silica nanoparticles for innovative biomedical applications

“…In addition to several non-flexible designs, recent research has evidenced the fabrication of some innovative nature-mimicking, highly flexible, streamlined architectures, which look like tadpoles, fishes, and sperm-like structures. Ma et al designed the asymmetric streamlined MSN architectures with tunable surface curvatures and larger inner cavities [ 235 ]. These structures with ellipsoidal heads and a contracted tail offered a low fluid resistance coefficient for enhanced locomotivity.…”

“…Insets in panel a : digital photo of the tadpoles (upper right corner) and the corresponding distribution histograms of the body length of the mesoporous silica nanotadpoles (lower right corner). Reproduced with permission from Ref [ 235 ]. Copyright 2021, American Chemical Society …”

Artificial nanomotors: Fabrication, locomotion characterization, motion manipulation, and biomedical applications

“…In addition to the organic stomatocyte structure, hollow SiO 2 nanomotors with catalysts loaded in the nanocavities have been synthesized. [64,66] Yi et al reported a flask bottle-like nanomotor. The chemically asymmetric SiO 2 nanobottles with a diameter of ~350 nm and an opening of ~100 nm were first synthesized by an F I G U R E 4 Representative hollow nanomotors with a confined space prepared by the colloidal chemistry method.…”

“…The streamlined hollow mSiO 2 nanoparticles with controllable surface curvature were synthesized via an interfacial dynamic migration strategy. [ 66 ] By selectively loading the Fe 3 O 4 catalyst in the cavity of the streamlined SiO 2 nanotadpoles, the H 2 O 2 ‐driven mesoporous nanomotors were designed. The Fe 3 O 4 catalyzed the decomposition of H 2 O 2 fuel, producing a large local dissolved‐oxygen concentration gradient for efficient self‐diffusiophoretic propulsion with directionality.…”

Confined Jet Impingement Continuous Microchannel Reactor Synthesis of Ultrahigh-Quality Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres for CO2 Capture

“…22 Researchers prefer to focus on inexpensive and plentiful silica sources than exploring lithium sources. 23 Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) had received much attention owing to their many unique structural features, 24 such as a large pore size, 25 a high specific surface area, 26 structure, and a controlled skeleton composition. 27 Recently, mesoporous silica nanomaterials have been widely reported as silica sources to produce Li 4 SiO 4 , such as SBA-15, 28 MCM-41, 29 ZSM-5, 30 and so on.…”