Polyol-Made Luminescent And Superparamagnetic Beta-Nay0.8eu0.2f4@Gamma-Fe2o3 Core-Satellites Nanoparticles For Dual Magnetic Resonance And Optical Imaging

Red luminescent and superparamagnetic beta-NaY0.8Eu0.2F4@gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles, made of a 70 nm-sized beta-NaY0.8Eu0.2F4 single crystal core decorated by a 10 nm-thick polycrystalline and discontinuous gamma-Fe2O3 shell, have been synthesized by the polyol process. Functionalized with citrate ligands they show a good colloidal stability in water making them valuable for dual magnetic resonance and optical imaging or image-guided therapy. They exhibit a relatively high transverse relaxivity r(2) = 42.3 mM(-1).s(-1) in water at 37 degrees C, for an applied static magnetic field of 1.41 T, close to the field of 1.5 T applied in clinics, as they exhibit a red emission by two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy. Finally, when brought into contact with healthy human foreskin fibroblast cells (BJH), for doses as high as 50 mu g.mL(-1) and incubation time as long as 72 h, they do not show evidence of any accurate cytotoxicity, highlighting their biomedical applicative potential.