Tetraethoxy orthosilicate (TEOS) was used not only as a precursor of silica, but also as an agent which reinforces the skeleton of silica-gel to prepare an aerogel and resultant silica and silica-alumina with large pore size and pore volume. In this gel skeletal reinforcement, the strength of silica aerogel skeleton was enhanced by aging with TEOS/2-propanol mixed solution to prevent the shrink...

Human epidemiologic studies have found that silicosis may develop or progress even after occupational exposure has ended, suggesting that there is a threshold lung burden above which silica-induced pulmonary disease progresses without further exposure. We previously described the time course of rat pulmonary responses to silica inhalation as biphasic, the initial phase characterized by increase...

IN papers II and III of this series [1933, 1, 2] it was shown that the excretion of silicic acid in the urine could be influenced by the administration of silica. The urinary level was largely dependent on the amount of silica which was orally ingested, either as a constituent of the food, or as added mineral material. Both oral and parenteral administrations lead to prompt elimination inthe ur...

We have developed structure/toxicity relationships for amorphous silica nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized through low-temperature colloidal (e.g., Stöber silica) or high-temperature pyrolysis (e.g., fumed silica) routes. Through combined spectroscopic and physical analyses, we have determined the state of aggregation, hydroxyl concentration, relative proportion of strained and unstrained siloxane...

Silica-loaded poly(glycerol monomethacrylate)-poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer vesicles are prepared in the form of concentrated aqueous dispersions via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). As the concentration of silica nanoparticles present during the PISA synthesis is increased up to 35% w/w, higher degrees of encapsulation of this component within the vesicles ca...

The goal of the present study was to compare the drug release properties and stability of the nanoporous silica with different pore architectures as a matrix for improved delivery of poorly soluble drugs. For this purpose, three dimensional ordered macroporous (3DOM) silica with 3D continuous and interconnected macropores of different sizes (200 nm and 500 nm) and classic mesoporous silica (ie,...

Accumulating evidence suggests that gender can have a profound effect on incidence and severity of a variety of pulmonary diseases. To address the influence of gender on the development of silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis, we instilled 0.2 g/kg silica into male and female C57BL/6 mice and examined the fibrotic and inflammatory response at 14 days postexposure. Both silica-exposed male and fema...