Monodisperse and nanometer-sized periodic mesoporous
organosilicas
co-doped with fluorescence resonance energy transfer cascades composed
of triple fluorophores at various ratios were prepared. These nanoparticles
exhibit multifluorescent emissions by a single-wavelength excitation
and were designed for the application as multichannelly traceable
drug carriers. Different from the hydrophilic framework of inorganic
mesoporous silica and hydrophobic framework of mesoporous carbon,
these multifluorescent nanoparticles have intrinsically different
and finely tunable pore surface polarities governed by the type and
amount of fluorophore inside the framework. When applied as drug carriers,
they can achieve synchronous or asynchronous release of different
drugs by simply choosing different colored nanoparticles. These colorful
mesoporous composites with finely tunable color-related drug release
performance provide a strong barcoding system for the potential applications
of fluorescent nanoparticles in effective screening of drugs and therapeutic
protocols for diseases.