Pulsed laser assisted synthesis of gadolinium carbide/carbon shell dots with enhanced magnetic resonance properties

There is now the opportunity for nanomaterials to be utilized in bioapplications with low toxicity, good stability and fine dissolvability. Herein, we present a pulsed laser assisted carbon coating method for nanocrystals, and gadolinium carbide/carbon shell (GC/CS) dots with a face-centered cubic structured gadolinium carbide core that have been synthesized in toluene. Good stability of the GC/CS dots was observed, not only in ethanol but also in the immunoconjugates. The MTT assay revealed immunoconjugates with non/low cytotoxicities. As a type of paramagnetic species, the GC/CS dots revealed excellent enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging at a high magnetic field of 14.1 T at ultra-low concentrations. In terms of the relaxivity values of the 1-3 nm GC/CS sample, both [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] have been dramatically increased to 86.5 mM^-1 s^-1 and 107.3 mM^-1 s^-1, respectively, thereby demonstrating the great potential for GC/CS dots to be utilized as advanced magnetic resonance agents for the diagnosis of cancers.