Synthesis and characterization of ultra-small gadolinium oxide nanoparticles

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Kimya Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: PAKIZAN TASMAN

Danışman: MÜRVET VOLKAN

Özet:

Ultra-small gadolinium oxide nanoparticles are used as contrast agents for molecular and cellular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure. They are also important for drug targeting magnetic separation and gene therapy applications due to their paramagnetic properties. Gadolinium oxide nanoparticles have been known to have the highest gadolinium density of all paramagnetic gadolinium contrast agents since they generate strong positive contrast enhancement. There are many techniques that have been introduced to synthesize gadolinium oxide nanoparticles. In this study, we optimized a simple polyol-free method for preparation of ultra-small nanosize (<4 nm) Gd2O3 nanoparticles. They are successfully synthesized in aqueous medium in an ultra-small nanosize 1.5-2.5 nm range which is the optimum size range needed for maximal contrast enhancement in MRI. After synthesizing gadolinium oxide nanoparticles, to analyze and characterize them, X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-VIS) were used. These nanoscale particles has been shown to have promising properties to function as a contrast agent for MRI imaging.