Hydrothermal Synthesis of Monodispersed BaGdF5:Yb/Er Nanoparticles for CT and MR Imaging

In this paper, we report the development of a facile one-pot hydrothermal method for the controlled synthesis of monodispersed BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles for computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The as-prepared nanoparticles have uniform size with a diameter of 20–25 nm. MTT tests show that the cell viability surpasses 90% even with a concentration of nanoparticles of 500 µg/mL, suggesting that the as-prepared BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles possess low toxicity. For both BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles and iopromide, the Hounsfield unit (HU) values increase with the their concentration. The slope of BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles is about 26.47, which is much higher than that of iopromide (16.98), indicating a better CT imaging effect. Interestingly, we find that the synthesized BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles exhibit paramagnetism. Our in vitro and in vivo imaging experiments demonstrate that the synthesized monodispersed BaGdF 5 :Yb/Er nanoparticles can serve as effective contrast agents for CT and MR imaging.