Water-based Synthesis of Superparamagnetic X-ray Fluorescent Contrast Agents

Abstract: Nowadays, nanomedicine is one of the most important application areas fornanoparticles (NPs), where the design and synthesis of new hybrid nanostructures have attracted much interest, when combining properties and functionalities from different constituents. For example, they have been extensivelyused for dual-mode imaging. In this work, a water-based synthesis of hybridNPs with co-precipitation method was studied. To obtain superparamagnetichybrid NPs for X-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT), severalhybridization mechanisms were followed, combining the superparamagneticbehavior of iron oxide NPs with active X-ray fluorescence (XRF) elements –Rh or Ru. The NP surface had to be engineered to improve the NP stabilityand dispersion in water, and to grant high biocompatibility. The resulting hybrid nanostructures exhibit promising characteristics for dual-mode imagingand hyperthermia treatments. We present on the details of the synthetic process, as well as the characterization of the synthesized nanomaterials