Abstract
Designing a smart nanocarrier that releases its cargo and then degrades in the biological media in the presence of stimuli is still challenging. Herein, we report for the first time a novel azobenzene-based periodic mesoporous organosilica (AZO-PMO) nanoparticles that are delivering and biodegrading in the presence of azoreductase enzyme or under hypoxic conditions. Azobenzene-based periodic mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles were synthesized with different ratios of azobenzene precursor (3, 15 and 45 %). The nanoparticles were characterized by using different spectroscopic and electron microscopic techniques. These mesoporous nanoparticles exhibit a narrow particle size distribution (around 200 nm) with high efficiency to cleavage the azo bond and deliver the cargo.