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Carbon-protected magnetic nanoparticles exhibit long-term stability in acid or alkaline medium, good biocompatibility, and high saturation magnetization. As a result, they hold great promise for magnetic resonance imaging, photothermal therapy, etc. However, since pyrolysis, which is often required to convert the carbon precursors to carbon, typically leads to coalescence of the nanoparticles, the obtained carbon-protected magnetic nanoparticles are usually sintered as a non-dispersible aggregation. We have successfully synthesized discrete, dispersible, and uniform carbon-protected magnetic nanoparticles via a precise surface/interface nano-engineering approach. Remarkably, the nanoparticles possess excellent water-dispersibility, biocompatibility, a high T2 relaxivity coefficient (384 mM–1·s–1), and a high photothermal heating effect. Furthermore, they can be used as multifunctional core components suited for future extended investigation in early diagnosis, detection and therapy, catalysis, separation, and magnetism.

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 11 December 2015
Revised: 29 January 2016
Accepted: 03 February 2016
Published: 29 September 2016
Issue date: May 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This project was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21225312). We appreciate Dr. Fang Fang at Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of China for assistance with the in vitro MRI measurement, Dr. Liming Wang at National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China for assistance with the cell experiments.

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