Disordered Mesoporous Gadolinosilicate Nanoparticles Prepared Using Gadolinium Based Ionic Liquid Emulsions: Potential as Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents

Abstract

Gadolinium doped mesoporous silica (gadolinosilicate) nanoparticles were synthesized using a novel approach aimed at incorporating Gd ions into a porous silica network. The ionic liquid, gadolinium (Z)-octadec-9-enoate (Gd Oleate) was utilized in a dual role, as a soft template to generate porous silica and also to act as a gadolinium source for incorporation into the silicate. The generated silicate materials were characterized for size, structure and composition, confirming that gadolinium was successfully doped into the silicate network in a mesoporous nanoparticulate form. Proton relaxivity results indicated that the gadolinium doped silicates had slightly lower longitudinal relaxivity and much higher transverse relaxivity than the commercial contrast agent Magnevist®, suggesting that the mesoporous nanoparticulate materials have potential as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging.