Hydrothermal Synthesis of an Ethiodol Based Ferrofluid as a Potential MRI Contrast Agent

In the present work, stable ferrofluids containing oleic acid capped magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized via low temperature hydrothermal method. The physical and chemical properties of the synthesized particles were studied using TEM, XRD, AFM, VSM and PCS techniques. Mean particles size of the samples was between 4.5 and 10 nanometers, depending on experimental conditions. Effect of precursor’s medium alkalinity was investigated on particle size. Cell culture experiments performed via MTT assay demonstrated that this product was biocompatible. In addition, cellular uptakes were investigated by Prussian blue staining and also measuring Fe concentration by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy. Finally, the synthesized particles were dispersed in the Ethiodol and the obtained suspension was used as a potential MRI contrast agent. To the best of our knowledge, the mentioned procedure of using a non-aqueous based MRI contrast agent has been done for the first time in the present work and provides good capabilities as opposed to aqueous ones including reduced synthesis process time and increased magnetic properties of the obtained contrast agent.