Figure 5.

Degradation profiles of H₁, H₂, and H₃ SNPs over 14 days in simulated body fluid (SBF) or SBF with 10 mM glutathione (GSH) (pH 7.4) incubated at 37 °C. Silicon values were measured by ICP-MS in triplicate. H₂ nanoparticles demonstrate higher resistance to degradation in SBF alone compared to H₁ and H₃ nanoparticles due to the increased composition of the hydrophobic disulfide-bridged silsesquioxane framework resulting in slower hydrolysis. H₃ nanoparticles were observed to have the least degradation in SBF with 10 mM GSH due to a reduction in solvent/particle interactions within the deeper layers and core of the nanoparticle. The results are plotted as means ± SD of three independent experiments (** p value < 0.01, **** p value < 0.0001).