Dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles synthesized via a facile one-pot surfactant-free process

A method of forming dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles comprising preparing a mixture containing one or more polymer precursors, a silica precursor, and a compound that reacts with silica and reacts with a polymer or oligomer formed from the one or more polymer precursors, wherein:

• the one or more polymer precursors comprise 3-aminophenol and -formaldehyde;
• and
• the silica precursor is selected from the group consisting of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), tetrapropyl orthosilicate (TPOS) tetrabutoxysilane (TBOS) and tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS);
• and
• the compound that reacts with silica and reacts with the polymer or oligomer formed from the one or more polymer precursors comprises ethylene diamine (EDA);
• wherein a mass ratio of EDA to (3-aminophenol and formaldehyde) falls within a range of from 0.20 to 0.28 in order to form asymmetric particles, and
• stirring the mixture whereby nanoparticles are formed, wherein the silica precursor reacts to the compound more quickly than the one or more polymer precursors such that flail primary silica particles are initially formed, followed by formation of further silica and polymer or oligomer that are laid down on the primary silica particles to form particles that comprise the primary silica particles having extra silica and polymer or oligomer growing from the surface thereof, and subsequently treating the nanoparticles to remove polymer therefrom to form the dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles having outgrowths of silica spikes on the primary silica particle.