Preparation and study of a mesoporous silica-coated Fe3O4 photothermal nanoprobe

A mesoporous silica-coated Fe3O4 nanoprobe exhibiting a high photothermal conversion efficiency was synthesized by a facile and green approach. The silica shell with a mesoporous structure was obtained using tetraethyl orthosilicate as the silica source, cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the template, and 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene as a pore swelling agent. The morphology and magnetic properties of the resultant nanoprobe were characterized via TEM, XRD and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The nanoprobe, with a well-defined core-shell nanostructure, exhibited strong superparamagnetism at room temperature. Moreover, after cancer cells were cultured with the nanoprobe solution and irradiated for several minutes by laser, the cancer cells were effectively destroyed, demonstrating that this nanoprobe is a good candidate for treating cancer.