Development of elliptic core-shell nanoparticles with fluorinated surfactants for F MRI.

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