Novel fluorinated ligands for gold nanoparticle labelling with applications in ¹⁹F-MRI

Novel fluorinated ligands for gold nanoparticle labelling have been designed and synthesised. Several types of gold nanoparticles have been prepared in the presence of these fluorinated ligands alone, or in combination with non-fluorinated ligands. Their colloidal stability in water and other solvents was tested and the magnetic resonance properties of the so-obtained nanoparticles were also assessed in detail. ¹H and ¹⁹F-NMR spectra were evaluated and MRI phantoms of the most promising nanoparticles were successfully measured in ¹⁹F-MRI. The MRI signal to noise ratio was related to the fluorine concentration and compared with ICP-MS data to correlate the real concentration of fluorine grafted onto the nanoparticles with the actually active fluorine in MRI.