Organic Hollow Mesoporous Silica as a Promising Sandalwood Essential Oil Carrier

As film-forming agents, fillers and adsorbents, microplastics are often added to daily personal care products. Because of their chemical stability, they remain in the environment for thousands of years, endangering the safety of the environment and human health. Therefore, it is urgent to find an environmentally friendly substitute for microplastics. Using n-octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silicon sources, a novel, environmentally friendly, organic hollow mesoporous silica system is designed with a high loading capacity and excellent adsorption characteristics in this work. In our methodology, sandalwood essential oil (SEO) was successfully loaded into the nanoparticle cavities, and was involved in the formation of Pickering emulsion as well, with a content of up to 40% (w/w). The developed system was a stable carrier for the dispersion of SEO in water. This system can not only overcome the shortcomings of poor water solubility and volatility of sandalwood essential oil, but also act as a microplastic substitute with broad prospects in the cosmetics and personal care industry, laying a foundation for the preparation and applications of high loading capacity microcapsules in aqueous media.

Automated summary

In this study, a novel organic hollow mesoporous silica system was designed using n-octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silicon sources, with high loading capacity and excellent adsorption characteristics. Sandalwood essential oil (SEO) was successfully loaded into the nanoparticle cavities, forming Pickering emulsion, with a content of up to 40% (w/w). This developed system serves as a stable carrier for dispersing SEO in water, overcoming the limitations of poor water solubility and volatility of sandalwood essential oil, and offering a promising alternative to microplastics in the cosmetics and personal care industry.