Abstract A hydrophobic pH sensitive nanocontainer was fabricated using smart surfaces covalently attached to a porous alumina support. The smart surface was synthesized using a mixture of aliphatic and aminated silanes and optimized to be hydrophobic at pH<7 and hydrophilic at pH<5. The hydrophobic nanocontainer thus synthesized was able to retain a cargo of the model molecule safranine at neutral pH. When pH decreased, safranine was liberated at a high rate due to the large pores of the alumina. It is expected that the nanocontainer here presented could constitute the basis of a cancer treatment as an effective drug delivery system in chemotherapy.