Streamlined Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Tunable Curvature from Interfacial Dynamic-Migration Strategy for Nanomotors

Abstract

Streamlined architectures with a low fluid-resistance coefficient have been receiving great attention in various fields. However, it is still a great challenge to synthesize streamlined architecture with tunable surface curvature at the nanoscale. Herein, we report a facile interfacial dynamic migration strategy for the synthesis of streamlined mesoporous nanotadpoles with varied architectures. These tadpole-like nanoparticles possess a big streamlined head and a slender tail, which exhibit large inner cavities (75–170 nm), high surface areas (424–488 m2 g–1), and uniform mesopore sizes (2.4–3.2 nm). The head curvature of the streamlined mesoporous nanoparticles can be well-tuned from ∼2.96 × 10–2 to ∼5.56 × 10–2 nm–1, and the tail length can also be regulated from ∼30 to ∼650 nm. By selectively loading the Fe3O4 catalyst in the cavity of the streamlined silica nanotadpoles, the H2O2-driven mesoporous nanomotors were designed. The mesoporous nanomotors with optimized structural parameters exhibit outstanding directionality and a diffusion coefficient of 8.15 μm2 s–1