Mesoporous silica nanoparticles with manipulated microstructures for drug delivery

A range of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with controlled microstructural characteristics were successfully prepared via the binary surfactant templated synthesis approach with varied concentration of triblock copolymer Plutonic F127. The relationship between the MSNs structural evolution and the surfactant concentration was extensively discussed. Ibuprofen (IBU) was loaded as drug model to uncover the in vitro drug releasing kinetics. It was found that the quantity of the drug loaded mainly depended on the specific surface area, while the drug releasing rate was dominantly determined by the length and curvature of the mesopores. This study has uncovered the core influential factors of MSNs system on its drug releasing properties, and thus demonstrated a facile approach to prepare MSNs with manipulated structural characteristics for drug delivery applications. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.