Mesoporous silica nanomaterials are silica-based porous materials with pore diameters of greater than approximately 1 nm. Due to their high surface areas and the ease with which these materials can be functionalized, many current and emerging applications have been identified including heavy metal and radioactive contaminant adsorption, drug delivery and imaging. As biomedical and environmental applications for mesoporous silica nanomaterials are increasingly developed and deployed, it becomes critically important to understand the interactions of these nanomaterials with natural and biological systems. Therefore, it is of great interest to investigate how the adsorption of biological and environmental media on mesoporous silica nanoparticles occurs on a molecular level and how this impacts nanoparticle transformations, such as agglomeration and dissolution, along with other parameters including the chemical properties of biological and environmental molecules. The studies discussed in this talk focus on understanding the molecular level interactions of biomolecules and of natural organic matter with mesoporous silica surfaces under conditions of varying pH, functionalization and surface charge. These results suggest that the interactions are mediated by the properties of the mesoporoous silica nanomaterials, such as porosity and surface functionality, as well as other factors, such as pH and the solvent/media present.

Insight into the interactions of biomolecules and natural organic matter with mesoporous silica nanomaterials

2019 Fall National Meeting

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