Fluorescent silica MCM-41 nanoparticles based on flavonoids: Direct post-doping encapsulation and spectral characterization

Flavones and flavonols are naturally-occurring organic molecules with interesting biological, chemical and photophysical properties. In recent years their interaction with silica surfaces has received increasing attention. In this work, the flavonol 3-hydroxyflavone (3HF) and the flavone 7-hydroxyflavone (7HF) have been encapsulated in MCM-41 mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NP) via a post-doping procedure, and their photophysics characterized by both steady state and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques. Both flavonoid-doped NPs resulted to be highly fluorescent, even after two months of exposure to air at room temperature. UV light irradiation results in a moderate decrease of the fluorescence quantum yield. Complementary UV-Vis and fluorescence experiments of 3HF and 7HF in solutions and TD-DFT calculations to simulate absorption and emission spectra have been carried out in order to better rationalize the exact nature of the emitting species. Whereas for 3HF-doped NPs the tautomer emission in the green predominates, the fluorescence of 7HF-doped NPs is likely to arise from the cationic or the phototautomeric form of the flavonoid. The results show that organic fluorophore-based fluorescent silica NPs can be easily obtained by a post-doping procedure and represent a first step towards the development of a simple strategy for the encapsulation in MCM-41 NPs of flavonoids and other organic molecules.