Hollow periodic mesoporous organosilica nanospheres by a facile emulsion approach

Periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) with homogeneously incorporated organic groups, highly ordered mesopores, and controllable morphology have attracted increasing attention. In this work, one-step emulsion approach for preparation of hollow periodic mesoporous organosilica (HPMO) nanospheres has been established. The method is intrinsically simple and does not require any sacrificial templates, corrosive and toxic etching agents. The obtained HPMO nanospheres have high surface area (∼950m(2)g(-1)), accessible ordered mesochannels (∼3.4nm), large pore volume (∼3.96cm(3)g(-1)), high condensation degree (77%), and diameter (∼560nm), hollow chamber size (∼400nm), and shell thickness (∼80nm). Furthermore, cytotoxicity show the cell viability is higher than 86% after incubating with the HPMO nanospheres at a concentration of up to 1200μgmL(-1) for 24h. The hemolysis of HPMO nanospheres is lower than 1.1% at concentrations ranging from 10 to 2000μgmL(-1). The lower hemolysis and cytotoxicity make the HPMO nanospheres great promise for future biomedical applications.