Ordered Surface Structuring of Spherical Colloids with Binary Nanoparticle Superlattices.

Surface-patterning colloidal matter in the sub-10 nm regime generates exceptional functionality in biology and photonic and electronic materials. Techniques of artificially generating functional patterns in the small nanoscale advanced in a fascinating manner in the last several years. However, they remain often restricted to planar and noncolloidal substrates.

Colloidal capsules: nano- and microcapsules with colloidal particle shells.

Utilizing colloidal particles for the assembly of the shell of nano- and microcapsules holds great promise for the tailor-made design of new functional materials. Increasing research efforts are devoted to the synthesis of such colloidal capsules, by which the integration of modular building blocks with distinct physical, chemical, or morphological characteristics in a capsule's shell can result in novel properties, not present in previous encapsulation structures. This review will provide a comprehensive overview of the synthesis strategies and the progress made so far of bringing nano- and microcapsules with shells of densely packed colloidal particles closer to application in fields such as chemical engineering, materials science, or pharmaceutical and life science.

Enhancing Cellular Uptake and Doxorubicin Delivery of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles via Surface Functionalization: Effects of Serum.

In this study, we demonstrate how functional groups on the surface of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) can influence the encapsulation and release of the anticancer drug doxorubicin, as well as cancer cell response in the absence or presence of serum proteins. To this end, we synthesized four differently functionalized MSNPs with amine, sulfonate, polyethylene glycol, or polyethylene imine functional surface groups, as well as one type of antibody-conjugated MSNP for specific cellular targeting, and we characterized these MSNPs regarding their physicochemical properties, colloidal stability in physiological media, and uptake and release of doxorubicin in vitro. Then, the MSNPs were investigated for their cytotoxic potential on cancer cells.

Bifunctional submicron colloidosomes coassembled from fluorescent and superparamagnetic nanoparticles.

Colloidosomes are microcapsules consisting of nanoparticle shells. These microcarriers can be self-assembled from a wide range of colloidal particles with selective chemical, physical, and morphological properties and show promise for application in the field of theranostic nanomedicine. Previous studies have mainly focused on fairly large colloidosomes (>1 μm) based on a single kind of particle; however, the intrinsic building-block nature of this microcarrier has not been exploited so far for the introduction of tailored functionality at the nanoscale.