Abstract
Multifunctional SiO2 · Re2O3 (Re = Y, Eu, La, Sm, Tb, Pr) hollow spheres (HSs) have been fabricated using an acidic Re3+ ion solution. Under ultraviolet radiation, functional HSs emit different colors of light according to the different rare-earth ions embedded into the shell of SiO2 hollow spheres. The as-prepared hollow capsules were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectrometry. Drug loading and release experiments have been carried out using SiO2 · Eu2O3 HSs that acted as drug carriers. The results demonstrate that the multifunctional HSs exhibit a high storage capacity and the ability of retaining drug stability and activity, which indicates that the as-synthesized fluorescent hollow capsules are a potential candidate as drug delivery materials.
Highlights
Much attention have been focused on the research of hollow SiO2 spheres (HSSs) because of their excellent properties such as thermal stability, large surface areas, low density, low toxicity, and good compatibilities with other materials [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
A large number of holes with different sizes on the surface of SiO2 · Eu2O3 hollow spheres (HSs) could be observed in Figure 2A, which belonged to a range of mesoporous structures according to the diameter of holes
The SiO2 HSs were amorphous according to their X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, so the lattice fringe that appeared on the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) image (Figure 2B) stemmed from Eu2O3
Summary
Much attention have been focused on the research of hollow SiO2 spheres (HSSs) because of their excellent properties such as thermal stability, large surface areas, low density, low toxicity, and good compatibilities with other materials [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Three approaches are employed to prepare HSSs: template methods [6,29,30,31], self-assembly technique, and microemulsions [32,33]. In 2008, Zhang et al [25] developed a self-template method to convert solid silica into hollow
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