Effect of the Pore Diameters and Amino-Organo Functional Structures on Mesoporous Silicas for DNA Adsorption

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) adsorption onto particles has applications in biosensors, separation methods, and gene delivery. Mesoporous silica (MPS), which exhibits a high surface area and large pore volume, is used in these applications because its pore size is easily controlled and its surface functional groups are easily exchanged. In this study, three types of MPSs with different pore sizes (2.4, 5.6, and 11.8 nm) were functionalized with different aminosilane coupling reagents and the effects of the MPS pore size and surface functional groups on DNA adsorption were evaluated. As the pore size of MPS increased, MPSs with diethylenetriamine (–3NH2) adsorbed higher amounts of DNA, whereas MPSs with hexylenediamine groups (–2HNH2) adsorbed lower amounts of DNA. Moreover, the fitting of DNA adsorption equilibrium data to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models was investigated.