Recently, a research team led by Professor Xu Lei from the Department of Physics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has successfully developed a new type of nano-silica material based on physical adsorption. Composed of nano-colloidal silica spheres, the material has an extremely high specific surface area, with the density of silanol groups on its surface reaching more than four times that of ordinary silica materials.

It has a strong adsorption capacity for drug molecules, being able to convert crystalline drugs into an amorphous state for adsorption, and can release the drugs upon contact with water to form a supersaturated solution. This provides a new solution to the problem of bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs, is expected to improve drug water solubility and therapeutic effects, and can also support the design of more efficient drug carrier systems, boasting broad application prospects. The relevant paper has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).