Magnetofluorescent nanoparticles, i.e. nanocomposites of magnetic nanoparticles (MP) and quantum dots (QDs), are of research interest due to their potential multimodal imaging applications. These particles can be used for both magnetic resonance (as contrast agents) and fluorescent imaging studies. Conventional approaches for magnetofluorescent nanoparticles mainly used chloroform-based dry film method and/or also adopt cadmium-based QDs. The dry film method takes a long time for particle fabrication, and cadmium-based QDs bring safety concerns for biological applications due to the high toxicity of cadmium. In this work, a fast and efficient method using THF/H2O/ultrasonication and low toxicity near infrared CuInS2/ZnS QDs was developed for the fabrication of magnetofluorescent nanoparticles. Briefly, a mixture of magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, and phospholipid in THF is added into H2O under ultrasonication. Water-soluble phospholipid micelle encapsulated composite of both particles are formed. The produced samples were characterized in terms of their optical properties, colloidal stability, iron content, and magnetic relaxivity (by MRI). Although fluorescence quenching was observed for the hybrid micelles, adequate fluorescence for optical imaging is still present. Samples are stable in the solvents/conditions tested within one or two weeks after preparation. High iron recovery (> 50%) was achieved for these hybrids. The magnetic relaxivities of these samples were measured to be from 126 mM-1s-1 to 215 mM-1s-1 depending on the mass ratio of starting materials (MP and QDs) for micelles preparation.

Facile synthesis of Fe?3?O?4?-CuInS?2?/ZnS magnetofluorescent nanoprobes and their characterization

248th National Meeting (2014)

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