Gadolinium-functionalized nanoparticles for application as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents: Via polymerization-induced self-assembly

Abstract

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) is an easily applied synthetic technique for the preparation of polymer nanoparticles with various shapes and at high concentrations. Although PISA has been applied to prepare nanoparticles for a variety of different applications, to date there have been no attempts to employ nanoparticles prepared via PISA as a novel platform from which to prepare positive contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To this end, here we report an efficient synthesis of surface-functional polymer-based nanoparticles with tunable size and morphology (micelles, filomicelles and vesicles) via PISA, their post-synthetic functionalisation and an initial invest..