Synthesis and characterization of colloidal fluorescent mesoporous silica particles.

Mesoporous silica particles with narrow size distribution were obtained by a seeded growth process. Depending on the size of seeds and on the time of addition of reactants, the size of particles can be varied between 300 and 1000 nm. In a second step the dye fluorescein isothiocyanate can be embedded. The structure of these new silica particles with low density was investigated by SEM, XRD, BET, and confocal microscopy.