Nanoporous silicon nanoparticles for drug delivery applications

Nanoparticles can be composed of many different types of material, however in order to be considered as suitable candidates for drug delivery purpose, they need to follow a precise tailored biological behavior. Here we propose nanoporous silicon nanoparticles as optimal nanocarriers with tunable physicochemical properties, and we present a simple few-step fabrication process and an accurate description of nanoparticles considerable features. The performed measurements show that proposed water soluble nanoparticles have excellent loading capacity with no chemical modification on the adsorbed drug. Furthermore, they can degrade releasing the carried drug in a reasonable period of time producing non toxic substances, and show photoluminescent and Raman scattering properties that are useful tools for monitoring them. Raman analyses indicate that nanoporous silicon nanoparticles are distinguished from bulk silicon by a Raman shift to low frequencies and that annealing processes at 260 degrees C allows to maintain intact the crystalline structure, while complete disappearance appears for annealing at 700 degrees C. In this way Raman spectroscopy is a useful technique to follow the changes in composition of the nanoparticles after treatments. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.