Coprecipitated ferrite nanoparticles were coated with carbon using a hydrothermal method. From transmission electron microscope pictures, we could see that the coated iron oxide nanoparticles were spherical in shape with an average diameter of 90 nm. The strong bonding of carbon on the nanoparticle surfaces was checked by noting the C = O and C = C vibrations in Fourier transform infrared spectra. The spin-lattice relaxation process [T1] and spin-spin relaxation process [T2] relaxivities of hydrogen protons in the aqueous solution of coated nanoparticles were determined to be 1.139 (mM·s)-1 and 1.115 (mM·s)-1, respectively. These results showed that the carbon-coated iron oxide nanoparticles are applicable as both T1 and T2 contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging.PACS: 81.05.y; 76.60.Es; 61.46; 75.50.k; 87.61.

Gold-coated iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were synthesized for use as a T2 contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The coated nanoparticles were spherical in shape with an average diameter of 20 nm. The gold shell was about 2 nm thick. The bonding status of the gold on the nanoparticle surfaces was checked using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). The FTIR spectra confirmed the attachment of homocysteine, in the form of thiolates, to the Au shell of the Au-Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The relaxivity ratio, R2/R1, for the coated nanoparticles was 3-fold higher than that of a commercial contrast agent, Resovist, which showed the potential for their use as a T2 contrast agent with high efficacy. In animal experiments, the presence of the nanoparticles in rat liver resulted in a 71% decrease in signal intensity in T2-weighted MR images, indicating that our gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticles are suitable for use as a T2 contrast agent in MRI.

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Reported herein is the synthesis of a dextran coating on nickel ferrite (Ni-Fe2O4) nanoparticles via chemical coprecipitation. The aqueous solution of the synthesized nanoparticles showed good colloidal stability, and no precipitate was observed 20 months after the synthesis. The coated nanoparticles were found to be cylindrical in shape in the TEM images, and showed a uniform size distribution with an average length and diameter of 17 and 4 nm, respectively. The coated particles were evaluated as potential T1 and T2 contrast agents for MRI. The T1 and T2 relaxations of the hydrogen protons in the water molecules in an aqueous solution of dextran-coated Ni-Fe2O4 nanoparticles were studied. It was found that the T1 relaxivity for the aqueous solution of dextran-coated nanoparticles was slightly greater than that of a commercial Gd-DTPA-BMA contrast agent. The T2 relaxivity, however, was almost twice that of the commercial Gd-DTPA-BMA contrast agent. Animal experimentation also demonstrated that the dextran-coated Ni-Fe2O4 nanoparticles are suitable for use as either T1 or T2 contrast agents in MRI.

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Iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles coated with biocompatible chitosan were synthesized for use as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) contrast agent. The coating was performed simultaneously with the synthesis of the ferrite nanoparticles. A dynamic light-scattering spectrometer (DLS) and a transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to measure the average diameter of the coated nanoparticles, which was 67.0 nm. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) measurements showed strong bonding of the chitosan molecules to the surfaces of the ferrite nanoparticles. The spin-lattice (T1) and the spin-spin (T2) relaxation times of the nuclear spins (hydrogen protons) in aqueous solutions of various concentrations of coated ferrite nanoparticles were determined using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. Using these data, we found that the T1 and the T2 relaxivities of the nuclear spins in aqueous solutions of ferrite nanoparticles were 0.00291 and 0.0691 ppm −1 sec −1 , respectively. In particular, the value of the T2 relaxivity was much larger than that of the commercial contrast agent GD-DTPA (gadolinium diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid). A 31.7% intensity loss in the T2 image of a rabbit liver was observed after injecting the aqueous solution of coated nanoparticles into the rabbit, which shows that our coated ferrite nanoparticles can be used as a T2 MRI contrast agent.

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