co-Condensation Synthesis of Salicylaldimine Calcium Complex Containing Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as Carriers for Drug Release

A series of functional mesoporous silica nanoparticles（MSNs） was synthesized by a one-step simple synthesis approach involving co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane（TEOS） and salicylaldimine ligand（Sal-Si） in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride（CTAC） under basic conditions.The target MSNs with different sizes （50,100 and 200 nm,respectively） were obtained.Furthermore,the Ca^2＋ cations were also introduced into MSNs.The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by means of infrared（IR） spectra,thermogravimetric analysis（TGA）,inductively coupled plasma（ICP）,CHN elemental analysis,nitrogen adsorption-desorption,scanning electron microscope（SEM） and transmission electron microscope（TEM）.Ibuprofen（IBU） which contains carboxyl groups was selected as a model drug.The results of drug loading and release reveal that the loading capacities and release behaviors of the model drug are highly dependent on the Ca^2＋ cations in MSNs.The release of IBU from the MSNs functionalized by Ca^2＋ cations is found to be effectively controlled when compared to the release from the MSNs without the functionalization of Ca^2＋ cations,which is due to the ionic interaction between carboxyl groups in IBU and Ca^2＋ cations in MSNs.