Monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres based on pyridinium ionic liquids

Abstract

In the past decades, ionic liquids (ILs) have garnered a lot of attention especially in the field of green chemistry due to their unique properties which help to solve the problems posed by organic solvents. Interestingly, their applications are not limited to that only as ILs have the potential to become alternative templates in the development of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). This work reported the usage of a series of pyridinium ILs as template in the synthesis of monodispersed mesoporous silica nanosphere (MNSs) via two methods. Both syntheses utilize triethanolamine (TEA) as the base catalyst where in one method the TEA undergoes pre-treatment process while the other did not. Besides that, the effects of pyridinium ILs alkyl chain length were also investigated. MNSs generated via both methods exhibit spherical morphology and decreasing average particles size with increasing alkyl chain length of pyridinium ILs. The MNSs porosity were further analyzed through nitrogen sorption analysis where the surface area were in between 71.85 and 525.02 m 2 g −1 and the pore volume was up to 1 cm 3 g −1 .

Ionic Liquid-Based Surfactants: Recent Advances in Their Syntheses, Solution Properties, and Applications

“…It was observed that with both strategies, except for a minor change in the results, the size of the MSNPs decreased with increasing the length of HC, whereas the porosity and surface area of MSNPs increased in the same direction. This is shown by the reported results of C₁₈PyBr/C₁₂PyBr, for the mean particle size (nm), BET surface area (m 2 g⁻ 1 ) and pore volume (cm 3 g⁻ 1 ), respectively: 0.31, 5.63 and 3.57 [ 198 ]. The same authors employed experimental design to optimize the average surface area and particle size of the fabricated MSNPs and studied the loading and release of the drug quercetin (a flavonoid employed to prevent/treat some cancer types).…”

“…ILBSs have been explored in various fields, including chemical synthesis and catalysis [ 165 , 166 , 167 , 168 , 169 , 170 ], drug delivery [ 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 ], biomass conversion [ 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 , 182 , 183 ], liquid crystal development [ 184 , 185 , 186 ], decontamination [ 187 , 188 , 189 , 190 , 191 , 192 , 193 ] and formation and stabilization of metal NPs [ 61 , 194 , 194 , 195 , 196 , 197 , 198 , 199 , 200 , 201 , 202 , 203 , 204 , 205 , 206 , 207 , 208 , 209 , 210 , 211 , 212 , 213 …”

“…These results suggest that with MSNPs, it is possible to have a slower release of drugs [ 199 ]. Drug release profile is illustrated in Figure 12 [ 198 ].…”

Progress in Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Agents for Cancer Treatment

“…By changing the template from tannic acid to gallic acid, the particle size of synthesized MSNs increased from 240 nm to 600 nm [ 45 ]. Our research group also discovered that by increasing the alkyl chain length of the ionic liquid template, the particle size decreased [ 46 ]. The particle size of MSNs can also be controlled by utilizing grain growth suppressants.…”

Morphology Modulation of Ionic Surfactant Micelles in Ternary Deep Eutectic Solvents

“… 2 Applications involving these systems range from polymers and polymer membranes 3 − 5 to the synthesis of porous materials. 6 , 7 Although ionic liquids possess several advantages such as low vapor pressure, low flammability, and a wide liquid range, 8 they may also present high expense, synthetic challenges, and non-negligible toxicity which may prevent their widespread use in industry. 9 …”