Sequential drug release via chemical diffusion and physical barriers enabled by hollow multishelled structures

Hollow multishelled structures (HoMSs), with relatively isolated cavities and hierarchal pores in the shells, are structurally similar to cells. Functionally inspired by the different transmission forms in living cells, we studied the mass transport process in HoMSs in detail. In the present work, after introducing the antibacterial agent methylisothiazolinone (MIT) as model molecules into HoMSs, we discover three sequential release stages, i.e., burst release, sustained release and stimulus-responsive release, in one system. The triple-shelled structure can provide a long sterility period in a bacteria-rich environment that is nearly 8 times longer than that of the pure antimicrobial agent under the same conditions. More importantly, the HoMS system provides a smart responsive release mechanism that can be triggered by environmental changes. All these advantages could be attributed to chemical diffusion- and physical barrier-driven temporally-spatially ordered drug release, providing a route for the design of intelligent nanomaterials.