Polyamine-guided synthesis of anisotropic, multicompartment microparticles.

Colloidal particles that have nonuniform bulk or surface compositions are of emerging interest because of their potential applications involving advanced chemical storage and delivery and the self-assembly of novel functional materials. Experimental realization of anisotropic particles is much more difficult than that for particles with uniform bulk and surface composition, however. A new wet-chemical synthesis method to anisotropic microparticles is presented.

Nanoassembled capsules as delivery vehicles for large payloads of high relaxivity Gd3+ agents.

Nanoassembled capsules (NACs) that incorporate a polymer aggregate inside a silica shell may be loaded with agents that are of particular interest for therapeutic or diagnostic applications. NACs formed using the MRI contrast agent GdDOTP(5-) in the internal polymer aggregate are reported herein, the smaller of which show promise as potential MRI contrast agents. Unlike many other nanoencapsulated systems, water access to the inner core of these NACs does not appear to be limited and consequently the water relaxivity per Gd(3+) agent can reach as high as 24 mM(-1) s(-1).