Design of High-Relaxivity Polyelectrolyte Nanocapsules Based on Citrate Complexes of Gadolinium(III) of Unusual Composition.

Through nuclear magnetic relaxation and pH-metry, the details of the complexation of gadolinium(III) ions with citric acid (HL) in water and aqueous solutions of cationic polyelectrolytes are established. It is shown that the presence of poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) in solution affects magnetic relaxation behavior of gadolinium(III) complexes with citric acid (Cit) to a greater extent than polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDC). A large increase in relaxivity (up to 50 mMs) in the broad pH range (4-8) is revealed for the gadolinium(III)-citric acid-PEI system, which is particularly strong in the case of PEI with the molecular weight of 25 and 60 kDa.

Carboxyl groups do not play the major role in binding metal cations by graphene oxide.

In this study, we investigate the chemical interactions of Mn ions with graphene oxides, prepared by Hummers' (HGO) and Brodie's (BGO) methods in aqueous solutions by means of NMR relaxation. Carboxyl groups, which are always present in HGO in significant quantities, are often considered as the main binding sites for metal ions. Here we demonstrate that metal ions are bound efficiently by BGO, containing a negligibly small quantity of carboxyl groups.

Magneto-Optical Properties of the Magnetite-Graphene Oxide Composites in Organic Solvents.

Graphene oxide (GO) aqueous solutions are known to form liquid crystals that can switch in electric fields. Magnetic fields as external stimuli are inefficient toward GO because of its diamagnetic properties, and GO is known to be insoluble in most of the organic solvents. In this study, composites of GO with oleate-protected magnetite nanoparticles were prepared as stable colloid solutions in the mixed isopropanol-chloroform solvents.

Distribution of Gd(III) ions at the graphene oxide/water interface.

Graphene oxide (GO) have emerged recently as a novel material for sorbing metal cations from aqueous media. However, the literature data on sorption capacity differ by more than one order in magnitude, and the nature of the chemical bonding between GO and metal cations remains unclear. In this work we show that Gd ions are bound to GO by both coordinate-covalent bonding and electrostatic attraction with prevailing the former.

Analysis of competitive binding of several metal cations by graphene oxide reveals the quantity and spatial distribution of carboxyl groups on its surface.

The sorption capacity of graphene oxide (GO) toward different metal cations has been the subject of several recent studies. However, the reported quantitative data are controversial, and the mechanism of chemical bonding between GO and metal cations is poorly understood. Clarifying these questions can eventually help to reveal the fine chemical structure of GO that remains ambiguous.