Optically active neodymium hydroxide surface-functionalized mesoporous silica micro-cocoons for biomedical applications

•Synthesis of photo-chemically active SiO2@Nd(OH)3- micro-cocoon shaped structure through single step sol-gel process.•TEM, SEM and BET analysis represented the mesoporous structure.•Optically active, highly biocompatible with good aqueous colloidal stability.•As synthesized micro-structures exhibited non-toxicity even at high concentrati...More