Facile synthesis of hollow mesoporous bioactive glasses with tunable shell thickness and good monodispersity by micro-emulsion method

In this work, a facile synthesis was developed for fabrication of hollow mesoporous bioactive glasses (HMBGs) with tunable shell thickness and good monodispersity in a Hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)-cyclohexane-ethanol -water oil-in-water (O/W) micro-emulsion system. The morphology, structure and particle size of HMBGs were investigated by various methods. The results demonstrated that the cyclohexane was added in the CTAB aqueous solution to form micro-emulsion droplets as template; CTAB acted as the surfactant of the micro-emulsion and the microstructural template of the HMBGs' shell. The shell thickness of HMBGs could be tuned by adjusting the CTAB concentration. The unique structure and properties may make the HMBGs good candidates as drug or gene carriers for bone and dental tissue regeneration.