In this work, in situ encapsulation of ibuprofen (IBU) was explored preliminarily using the emulsion sol-gel method. IBU-containing porous silica nanospheres (300-400 nm) of varied morphologies were fabricated simply by tailoring the amount of IBU in the starting solution. In the reaction system, IBU exists in the form of IBU(-) under basic conditions, which has strong electrostatic interaction with CTA(+), and thus could be regarded as cosurfactant to regulate the morphology and structure of silica nanospheres. Such morphology can be maintained even after calcination or IBU release in phosphate-buffered saline. The current results may shed light on the design and construction of new functional nanoarchitectures, which may be useful for drug delivery, separation, adsorption, catalysis, etc.
Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.