Biomimetic Preparation and Morphology Control of Mesoporous Silica - Biomimetics: Advancing Nanobiomaterials and Tissue Engineering - page 301

and procedures, mobility and reversibility, composability and diversity of
structure [14, 15].
Coding self-assembly is an advanced self-assembly, and thermody-
namic self-assembly is a lower one, which can be a simple coding process.
The coding self-assembly of protein is composed of manipulation, cataly-
sis of mesoscopic molecules, as well as template effect of the structural
protein with conserved sequence. Coding self-assembly also dominates
the biomineralization process. That is, (i) the sequence of amino acid resi-
due form the coding of molecular hierarchical structure with biological
function; (ii) DNA guide the programmed synthesis of protein sequences
in the particular moment, forming the code of a series of processes.

13.3 Mesoporous Silica

13.3.1 Mesoporous Silica: Defi nition and Classifi cation

Since the discovery of ordered mesoporous silica materials in the 1990s,
the synthesis and applications of mesoporous solids have received inten-
sive attention due to their highly ordered structures, larger pore size, high
surface area, and potential applications in catalysis [16], biomolecule sep-
arations [17], drug-delivery [18-20], fabrication of nanometer functional
materials and chromatographic supports, etc. [21-23]. Because of stable
mesoporous structure and well-defi ned surface properties, mesoporous
materials seem ideal for encapsulation and release of pharmaceutical
drugs, proteins and other biogenic molecules. Since the report by Vallet-
Regi et al. in 2001 using MCM-41 as a new drug delivery system [24], a
lot of studies have been done in this area, developing different types of
mesoporous materials with varying porous structure and functionality for
sustained drug released and stimuli-responsive release.
A large number of known mesostructure of mesoporous silica such as
M41s, SBA-n, etc., and even some of the new structure, have been synthe-
sized, such as a hollow/rattle-type and some more complex forms, which
stem from the silica having exceptional plasticity at a mesoscopic scale.
For example, M41s, including MCM-41(hexagonal), MCM-48 (cubic) and
MCM-50 (lamellar), are a family of a series of orderly mesoporous silica
that were invented by Mobil scientists led by Beck et al. in 1992 [25, 26].
Several kinds of mesoporous silica are introduced in Table 13.1.

13.3.2 Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSN)

Nanosized mesoporous materials have always been a goal for material
chemists. The application of the MSN is mainly in drug delivery system,
controlled release, heterogeneous catalysis, and nanomachines. Among the