title: Shape-tunable hollow silica nanomaterials based on a soft-templating method and their application as a drug carrier.
abstract: A one-step soft-templating method for synthesizing shape-tunable hollow silica nanomaterials was developed in a reliable and highly reproducible way. For the first time, both nonspherical and spherical shapes with hollow interiors, including nanowire, nanospheres, and nanotadpole, were successfully obtained by simply changing the solvent. Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)-water droplets were used as soft templates for the formation of hollow structures, while three different solvents, including 1-propanol, 1-pentanol, and ethanol, led to the designed shapes. It was found that the solvent, the formation of PVP-water droplets, the amount of ammonia, and the reaction time had great effects on the morphology of synthesized hollow nanomaterials. The effect of various factors on the morphology was systematically studied to propose a growth mechanism. The obtained hollow silica nanomaterials showed excellent reproducibility and great potential for a large-scale synthesis. Finally, the application of the developed hollow silica nanomaterials was demonstrated using the hollow spherical silica nanoparticles. Its drug-carrying ability was studied. The results could be extended for doping various target molecules into the hollow structures for a broad range of applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota , Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202, United States.
authors.forename: Jiao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Xingguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Qianli
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Nenny
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fahruddin
authors.forename: Julia Xiaojun
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D004337:Drug Carriers; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D049329:Nanostructures; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D012822:Silicon Dioxide
keywords: PVP; drug carrier; hollow silica nanomaterials; shape-tunable; soft-templating; solvent