Facile synthesis of PDMAEMA-coated hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles and their pH-responsive controlled release

A versatile method of grafting poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) on the surface of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN) via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) has been presented. TEM, FT-IR, TGA, XRD, and N-2 adsorption-desorption analysis were used for the characterization. The results state that the stimuli-responsive polymer has been successfully grafted onto the surface of HMSN. These hybrid nanoparticles have been proven to have a large storage capacity which can be applied in drug delivery. The external coated PDMAEMA layers act as a storage gate as well as a release switch in response to the stimuli of environment. In this paper, pH-responsive controlled release behavior was focused. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.