Disordered mesoporous gadolinosilicate nanoparticles prepared using gadolinium based ionic liquid emulsions: potential as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents

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.