Abstract:
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) with tunable physical and surface properties would find
application in various biotechnological and biomedical fields. In this study, a series of MSN with varied
physical properties were synthesized via liquid crystal templating (LCT) mechanism by varying the
molar concentrations of the reagents. Characterization of the prepared materials was done by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption
isotherms, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy,
thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The particle sizes, BarrettJoyner-Halenda (BJH) pore sizes, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas and BJH total pore
volume were tuned between 50 to 900 nm, 2.4 to 4.4 nm, 589 to 1163 m
2
g
-1
and 0.61 to 0.83 cm3
g
-1
,
respectively. The effects of reagents concentrations in the variation of the properties were discussed.
The study demonstrated the versatility of the liquid-based synthesis method in the preparation of MSN
with different physical properties.
