Comprehensive understanding of the synthesis and formation mechanism of dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres

Abstract

The interest in the design and controlled fabrication of dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres (DMSNs) emanates from their widespread application in drug-delivery carriers, catalysis and nanodevices owing to their unique open three-dimensional dendritic superstructures with large pore channels and highly accessible internal surface areas. A variety of synthesis strategies have been reported, but there is no basic consensus on the elucidation of the pore structure and the underlying formation mechanism of DMSNs. Although all the DMSNs show a certain degree of similarity in structure, do they follow the same synthesis mechanism? What are the exact pore structures of DMSNs? How did the bimodal pore size distributions kinetically evolve in the self-assembly? Can the relative fractions of small mesopores and dendritic large pores be precisely adjusted? In this review, by carefully analysing the structures and deeply understanding the formation mechanism of each reported DMSN and coupling this with our research results on this topic, we conclude that all the DMSNs indeed have the same mesostructures and follow the same dynamic self-assembly mechanism using microemulsion droplets as super templates in the early reaction stage, even without the oil phase.

Hydrogen-Bonded Water Clusters Confined in Nanocavity as Bright Color Emitters

“…S8 and S9). (27,28) The dosing experiment of Hofmeister series ions and the isotope experiments of water tested the possibility of WCs as emitter centers. When various Hofmeister series ions were introduced, the wavelength of fluorescence emission was not shifted, but the emission intensity significantly increased, suggesting the increased stability of emitter center of WCs (Fig.…”

“…Using mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) with the spherical pores of ca. 3 nm as inorganic matrix, (28,31) reminiscent of the size of β-can of 4.2 nm by 2.4 nm folded by eleven β-strands of GFP ( Figure S11). The fluorescent MSNs (FMSNs) without the incorporation of chromophores were designed to show the central role of gusted WCs for the PL emission.…”

Pyromellitic diamide–diacid bridged mesoporous organosilica nanospheres with controllable morphologies: a novel PMO for the facile and expeditious synthesis of imidazole derivatives

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Mesoporous silica materials (MSMs) have received significant attention from both academia and industry as an important class of NMs. The unique features of MSMs include regular mesoporous structure and tuneable surface properties as well as adjustable pore size which guarantee their widespread applications in drug delivery, gas storage, heterogeneous catalysis, adsorption, batteries and optical devices 3,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] MSMs can be synthesized via two general methods: in acidic or alkaline conditions using different templates. 27 Hence, significant efforts have been made to understand their synthesis process in order to control the obtained pore structures and morphologies.…”

Metal Oxide-Related Dendritic Structures: Self-Assembly and Applications for Sensor, Catalysis, Energy Conversion and Beyond

“…Recently, another type of dendritic structure has caught people′s attention: dendritic mesopores. These radially aligned channels are generated within spherical particles [ 34 , 35 ]. These dendritic pores are different from the parallel mesopore channels within silicate MCM-41, a milestone work performed by Mobil Oil Cooperation [ 36 ].…”