Core-Shell Magnetic Polymer Colloids for Self assembled Multilayers Thin
Films and Ultrasensitive Molecular Imaging
Abstract
In the present work, novel core-shell polymer magnetic colloids are
prepared and employed as a potential candidate in ultrasensitive
molecular imaging. The synthesized colloids possess high colloidal
stability, magnetization (43.85 emu g-1) and uniformity of particle size
with an average diameter of 527 nm. FTIR spectrum of magnetic emulsion
shows two characteristic peaks at 570 and 630 cm-1 which related to Fe-O
vibration bands. Both T1 and T2 relaxation times were successfully
measured. Based on signal intensities, the prepared colloids observed to
perform as better T2 weighted contrast agents. The T2-weighted MR images
showed significant signal intensity reduction and contrast darkening.
Moreover, the prepared colloids were also employed to fabricate thin
films via a facile method of layer by layer self-assembled multilayers
(LBL-SAMU) to explore their potential application in imaging. Uniform
particle size distribution with spherical morphologies was obtained for
the fabricated bilayers. In addition, a 20% increment in iron contents
was observed for 5-15 bilayer thin films decorated with film colloidal
particles. The reported work opens new avenues for designing powerful T2
contrast agents in various biomedical applications such as analysis of
biomacromolecules, diagnostics, and therapy.