A general method to synthesize a family of mesoporous silica nanoparticles less than 100 nm and their applications in anti-reflective/fogging coating

摘要

Recent advances in strategies for synthesizing mesoporous silica particle (MSN) have enabled the precise control of its morphology, size, and composition which afford the applications in drug delivery and heterogeneous catalysis. Especially for drug delivery, the size of MSNs < 100 nm is a prerequisite allowing for hemolysis effect. However, a general method for the synthesis of MSNs with uniform size distribution below 100 nm still remains challenging. Herein, a general method was developed to synthesize a family of aqueous colloidal MSNs with uniform size < 100 nm using small organic amines (SOAs) or nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds (NCHCs) as alkaline catalysts in the presence of cationic quaternary ammonium salts as organic templates. The size of MSNs can be easily adjusted within the range from 28 to 100 nm by the cooperative effect of the mixed alkaline catalysts or using different quaternary ammonium surfactants as templates. Also, texture properties of MSNs including pore diameter and surface area were controlled by selecting different kinds of SOAs or NCHCs. Based on the low refractive index of MSNs, these as-prepared MSNs serve as building blocks and afford an anti-reflective/fogging coating on glass slide through a facile dip-coating method.