Highly Aminated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Cubic Pore Structure

Mesoporous silica with cubic symmetry has attracted interest from researchers for some time. Here, we present the room temperature synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles possessing cubic Pm (3) over barn symmetry with very high molar ratios (>50%) of 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane. The synthesis is robust allowing, for example, co-condensation of organic dyes without loss of structure. By means of pore expander molecules, the pore size can be enlarged from 2.7 to 5 nm, while particle size decreases. Adding pore expander and co-condensing fluorescent dyes in the same synthesis reduces average particle size further down to 100 nm. After PEGylation, such fluorescent aminated mesoporous silica nanoparticles are spontaneously taken up by cells as demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy.