The effect of TEOS precursor and CTAB addition in the synthesis of magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles for drug delivery

Nanoscale drug delivery systems have been found to increase drug loading efficiency and avoid the body’s immune response. In this research, magnetic mesoporous nanosilica was developed as a drug carrier by utilizing Kulon Progo iron sand’s natural resources as the material. Magnetic mesoporous nanosilica was synthesized by the coprecipitation method using NH4OH as the precipitant. The synthesis was carried out in three stages to see the effect of adding silica and surfactant at each stage. The first stage was Fe3O4 synthesis from iron sand. The second stage included the synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2 by adding Tetraethyl Orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica precursor. The last stage was the synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2−CTAB, in which Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB) was the surfactant used. Each of the materials synthesized was characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX). The crystalline size calculation results using XRD data show that the particles are in nano size, the particle size of Fe3O4@SiO2−CTAB nanoparticles obtained 6.77 nm. Simultaneously, the % crystallinity also shows better crystal quality results after the addition of the two compounds. This influence can also be seen from the EDX analysis, where Fe decreases and new compositions, namely Si and Br, are present.