Tunable synthesis of hierarchical mesoporous silica nanoparticles with radial wrinkle structure.

We studied the formation mechanism of hierarchical mesoporous silica nanoparticles with a wrinkle structure (wrinkled silica nanoparticles, WSNs), and a method for substructure control of silica nanoparticles was proposed. We confirmed that WSNs were generated in the bicontinuous microemulsion phase of the Winsor III system. By using the phase behavior of the Winsor III system, which depends on the water-surfactant-oil mixing ratio, and by adding various cosolvents, we could precisely control the structure of silica nanoparticles from the mesoporous to the wrinkle form; furthermore, we could control the interwrinkle distance.