Fabrication of degradable lemon-like porous silica nanospheres for pH/redox-responsive drug release

In this work, pH/redox-responsive silica-based nanocarriers were constructed for drug delivery. Lemon-like porous silica (L-pSiO2) sample presents uniform sphere with size of 160–180 nm and processes thiol-functionalized center-radial inner pores and amine-functionalized shell. Cystine (Cys) molecules were conjugated on the surface of L-pSiO2 to seal the drug-loaded pores. To minimize the premature release, ZnO quantum dots (QDs) were further...