The impact of metal-decorated polymeric nanodots on proton relaxivity

Title : The impact of metal-decorated polymeric nanodots on proton relaxivity

Abstract:

The present talk will discuss experimental data regarding successful fabrication of a novel Cu²⁺-complex of nitrogen-rich polymer nanodots, with a mean diameter of about 20 nm extracted from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs and 350 nm obtained from dynamic light scattering (DLS) data. In a first step, the N-rich polymer nanodots were fabricated from N-vynil imidazole (VIm) using a one-pot hydrothermal synthesis performed at 220 ^oC for 24 hour. Secondly, the as-fabricated VIm-based nanodots were used to fabricate the Cu²⁺-doped VIm-based nanodots (Cu²⁺@VIm) via efficient incorporation as a complex in aqueous medium. The relaxivity of the as-fabricated Cu²⁺@Vim nanodots was explored aiming at its application as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. Enhancement of the relaxivity of the Cu²⁺@Vim nanodots (r1 = 1.05 mM⁻¹ s⁻¹) while compared to the relaxivity of the Cu²⁺ aqueous ion (r1 = 0.43 mM⁻¹ s⁻¹) will be presented and discussed. MRI tests performed while labeling MCF-7 cells with Cu²⁺@Vim nanodots show a remarkable contrast enhancement for T1-weighted imaging. Additional biomedical applications will be explored in the talk.

Biography:

Professor Paulo César De Morais (H61), PhD, was full Professor of Physics at the University of Brasilia (UnB) – Brazil up to 2013. Appointed as UnB’s Emeritus Professor (2014); Visiting Professor at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) – China (2012-2015); Distinguished Professor at the Anhui University (AHU) – China (2016-2019); Full Professor at the Catholic University of Brasília (UCB) – Brazil (2018); CNPq-1A Research Fellow since 2010; 2007 Master Research Prize from UnB. He held two-years (1987-1988) post-doc position with Bell Communications Research, New Jersey – USA and received his Doctoral degree in Solid State Physics (1986) from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) – Brazil. With more than 14,000 citations, He has presented more than 250 invited talks (35 countries), published more than 500 papers (Web of Science) and filed 16 patents.