AUTHOR=Wu Yue , Minoshima Masafumi , Kikuchi Kazuya 

TITLE=Development of elliptic core-shell nanoparticles with fluorinated surfactants for 19F MRI

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2024.1408509

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2024.1408509

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Perfluorocarbon-encapsulated silica nanoparticles possess attractive features such as biological inertness and favorable colloidal properties for bioimaging with fluorine magnetic resonance imaging (<sup>19</sup>F MRI). Herein, a series of elliptic shaped silica nanoparticles with perfluorocarbon liquid perfluoro-15-crown-5 ether as core (PFCE@SiO<sub>2</sub>) were synthesized using fluorinated surfactants <italic>N</italic>-(perfluorononylmethyl)-<italic>N</italic>,<italic>N</italic>,<italic>N</italic>-trimethylammonium chloride (C10-TAC) and <italic>N</italic>-(perfluoroheptylmethyl)-<italic>N</italic>,<italic>N</italic>,<italic>N</italic>-trimethylammonium chloride (C8-TAC). The nanoparticles are characterized to obtain elliptic core-shell structures. PFCE@SiO<sub>2</sub> showed strong <sup>19</sup>F NMR signals of the encapsulated PFCE, indicating the potential as a highly sensitive <sup>19</sup>F MRI probe. These elliptic PFCE@SiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles provide a new option of <sup>19</sup>F MRI probe with a morphology different from conventional nanospheres.</p>