A new synthesis of nanoparticles designed for Biomedical Imaging. A pilot study.

Abstract: This thesis presents a new procedure for synthesizing nanoparticles with fluorescent and MRI contrast enhancement properties. The produced nanoparticles consist of mixtures between two well-known materials; zinc oxide and gadolinium oxide. Zinc oxide is a well-known semiconductor with visible fluorescence and gadolinium oxide is a paramagnetic material exhibiting excellent magnetic properties for enhancing contrast in MRI.  The presented synthesis is based on a recently published protocol by Zhang et al [1], for synthesis of pure zinc oxide nanoparticles. The procedure includes a precursor synthesis where respectively metal is dissolved in a solution of water and methacrylic acid. Thereafter the precursors are mixed and dissolved in TEG for a combined nucleation and in-situ polymerization step. The work in this thesis is multidisciplinary involving molecular design, chemical synthesis, nanoparticle preparation, purification, characterization and also biological applications. The first rounds of nanoparticles were readily dispersible in water, had adequate fluorescent properties, were in a size range suited for in vivo applications and had better relaxivity properties compared to commonly used contrast agent. These results motivate future work including further optimizations of the protocol. This new nanomaterial has high potential as contrast agent for biomedical imaging.