Preparation and characterizations of helical mesoporous silica nanorods using CTAB and alcohols

Chiral Mesoporous Silica Materials: A Review on Synthetic Strategies and Applications

Because of its tunable textural properties and chirality feature, chiral mesoporous silica (CMS) gained significant consideration in many fields and has been developed rapidly in recent years. In this review, we provide an overview of synthesis strategies for fabricating CMS together with its main applications. The properties of CMS, including morphology and mesostructures and enantiomer excess (ee), can be altered according to the synthetic conditions during the synthesis process. Despite its primary stage, CMS has attracted extensive attention in many fields. In particular, CMS nanoparticles are widely used for enantioselective resolution and adsorption of chiral compounds with desirable separation capability. Also, CMS acts as a promising candidate for the effective delivery of chiral or achiral drugs to produce a chiral-responsive manner. Moreover, CMS also plays an important role in chromatographic separations and asymmetric catalysis. There has been an in-depth review of the synthetic methods and mechanisms of CMS. And this review aims to give a deep insight into the synthesis and application of CMS, especially in recent years, and highlights the significance that it may have in the future.

Effect of Shape on Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Oral Delivery of Indomethacin

The use of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) in the field of oral drug delivery has recently attracted greater attention. However, there is still limited knowledge about how the shape of MSNs affects drug delivery capacity. In our study, we fabricated mesoporous silica nanorods (MSNRs) to study the shape effects of MSNs on oral delivery. MSNRs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and small-angle X-ray diffraction (small-angle XRD). Indomethacin (IMC), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent, was loaded into MSNRs as model drug, and the drug-loaded MSNRs resulted in an excellent dissolution-enhancing effect. The cytotoxicity and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies indicated that MSNRs can be applied as a safe and efficient candidate for the delivery of insoluble drugs. The use of MSNs with a rod-like shape, as a drug delivery carrier, will extend the pharmaceutical applications of silica materials.

Morin Flavonoid Adsorbed on Mesoporous Silica, a Novel Antioxidant Nanomaterial

Morin (2´,3, 4´,5,7-pentahydroxyflavone) is a flavonoid with several beneficial health effects. However, its poor water solubility and it sensitivity to several environmental factors avoid its use in applications like pharmaceutical and cosmetic. In this work, we synthetized morin-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AMSNPs-MOR) as useful material to be used as potential nanoantioxidant. To achieve this, we characterized its adsorption kinetics, isotherm and the antioxidant capacity as hydroxyl radical (HO•) scavenger and singlet oxygen (1O2) quencher. The experimental data could be well fitted with Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models, besides the pseudo-second order kinetics model. The total quenching rate constant obtained for singlet oxygen deactivation by AMSNPs-MOR was one order of magnitude lower than the morin rate constant reported previously in neat solvents and lipid membranes. The AMSNPs-MOR have good antioxidant properties by itself and exhibit a synergic effect with morin on the antioxidant property against hydroxyl radical. This effect, in the range of concentrations studied, was increased when the amount of morin adsorbed increased.

Synthesis of helical and supplementary chirally doped PMO materials. Suitable catalysts for asymmetric synthesis

Exciting helical mesoporous organosilicas including supplementary chirally doped moieties into their spiral walls were one-pot successfully synthesized with good structural order for, to the best of our knowledge, the first time. This one-step direct synthesis of helical chirally doped periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials was carried out by combination of a tartrate-based bis-organosilicon precursor with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and two surfactants, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and perfluoroctanoic acid (CTAB and PFOA). For comparison purposes, a conventional two-step postsynthetic grafting methodology was carried out. In this method, the chiral tartrate-based moieties were grafted onto the helical silica mesoporous materials previously prepared by the dual-templating approach (CTAB and PFOA). The chirally doped materials prepared by both methodologies exhibited helical structure and high BET surface area, pore size distributions, and total pore volume in the range of mesopores. Solid-state (13)C and (29)Si MAS NMR experiments confirmed the presence of the chiral organic precursor in the silica wall covalently bonded to silicon atoms. Nevertheless, one-pot direct synthesis led to a greater control of surface properties and presented larger incorporation of organic species compared with the two-step postsynthetic methodology. To further prove the potential feasibility of these materials in enantiomeric applications, Mannich diastereoselective asymmetric synthesis was chosen as catalytic test. In the case of the one-pot PMO material, the rigidity of the chiral ligand backbone provided by its integration into the inorganic helical wall in combination with the steric impediments supplied by the twisted geometry led to the reagents to adopt specific orientations. These geometrical constrictions resulted in an outstanding diastereomeric induction toward the preferred enantiomer.