PNNL

Abstract

Mesoporous silicas have been extensively used for entrapping small chemical molecules and biomacromolecules. We hypothesize that the loading density of biomacromlecules such as proteins in mesoporous silicas could be limited due to mesopore disorderness and depth because of some pore volume inaccessible. We innovatively shattered mesoporous silicas resulting in reduced particle sizes and improved intramesoporous structures in aqueous solution by a powerful sonication, where the mesoporous structures were still well maintained. The sonication-shattered mesoporous silicas can allow protein loading densities to be increased by more than 170%, demonstrating that significantly more mesoporous room of the silicas could become accessible for biomacromolecule loading after the sonication-shattering.