A facile microemulsion template route for producing hollow silica nanospheres as imaging agents and drug nanocarriers

Abstract

Hollow silica nanospheres with uniform size distribution and tuneable shell thickness were synthesized through a one-step reverse microemulsion method at room temperature within 24 h. These hollow nanospheres demonstrated effective encapsulation ability for FITC, Eu³⁺-complexes, iron oxide nanoparticles and chemotherapy drugs for potential imaging and drug delivery applications.