Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Iron Oxide/Calcium Silicate Mesoporous Nanocomposites as a Promising Vehicle for Drug Delivery

The synthesis of the mesoporous nanocomposites consisting of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and calcium silicate with uniform size has been a challenge, although they are the ideal potential agent for medical diagnosis and therapy. In this work, the core/shell structured mesoporous nanocomposites consisting of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as the core and calcium silicate as the shell have been successfully synthesized using a two liquid phase system by ultrasound irradiation, in which the hydrophobic phase is composed of hydrophobic Fe3O4 nanoparticles and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and the water phase consists of Ca(NO3)2, NaOH, and water. The hollow mesoporous nanocomposites consisting of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and calcium silicate are obtained by adding a certain amount of the inert hydrophobic solvent isooctane in the reaction system before ultrasound irradiation. The nanocomposites have a superparamagnetic behavior, high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area (474 m2 g–1), and high Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) pore volume (2.75 cm3 g–1). The nanocomposites have high drug loading capacities for bovine hemoglobin, docetaxel, and ibuprofen. The docetaxel-loaded nanocomposites have the anticancer ability and, thus, are promising for applications in biomedical fields.