Synthesis of hierarchically mesoporous silica with encapsulated avobenzone as a UV protection filter

Wei-Hsun Wang; Hsin-Tung Liang; Yuan-Ting Yang-Wang; Chi-Jen Shih

doi:10.1039/d0ra01837f

Synthesis of hierarchically mesoporous silica with encapsulated avobenzone as a UV protection filter

RSC Adv. 2020 Apr 21;10(27):15846-15852. doi: 10.1039/d0ra01837f.

Authors

Wei-Hsun Wang^{1

2

3

4}, Hsin-Tung Liang⁵, Yuan-Ting Yang-Wang⁵, Chi-Jen Shih^{5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital Changhua Taiwan.
² School of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.
³ Department of Medical Imaging and Radiology, Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management Kaohsiung Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Golden-Ager Industry Management, Chaoyang University of Technology Taichung Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Fragrance and Cosmetic Science, College of Pharmacy, Kaohsiung Medical University 100 Shi-Chuan 1st Road Kaohsiung 80708 Taiwan cjshih@gap.kmu.edu.tw +886 73121101 ext. 2367.
⁶ Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung Taiwan.
⁷ Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.

Abstract

In this study, hierarchically mesoporous silica (HMS) with properties such as high specific surface area, high photostability, and no cellular toxicity was synthesized. The synthesized silica can be considered as an excellent carrier candidate material. Through the use of nitrogen adsorption and desorption analysis, the shape of the hysteresis loop implied the presence of mesoporous structures in the HMS powder. In addition, the encapsulation efficiency was more than 90%. These results showed that avobenzone could be encapsulated into the HMS powder because of its high specific surface area and pore volume. Additionally, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and UV-visible (Vis) spectrophotometry were used to prove that the hierarchically mesoporous silica was able to effectively encapsulate avobenzone. In addition, the new synthetic sunscreen kept its excellent UVA absorption properties after being encapsulated.