Terbium-doped gadolinium oxide nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation in liquid for use as a fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging dual-modal contrast agent

Dual-modal lanthanide-doped gadolinium nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibit an excellent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spatial resolution and high fluorescence imaging (FI) sensitivity, have attracted tremendous attention in biotechnology and nanomedicine applications. In this paper, terbium (Tb) ion doped gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3:Tb) NPs with varied Tb concentrations were synthesized by a laser ablation in liquid (LAL) method. The characterization of the structure, morphology, and composition shows that these NPs are spherical with excellent crystallinity. The effects of Tb ion concentration on the visible green fluorescence and longitudinal relaxivity were investigated, indicating that the fluorescence properties were significantly influenced by the Tb ion concentration, but all samples were still efficient T1-weighted contrast agents. Furthermore, the optimum Tb doping concentration was determined to be 1%. The cell viability, cellular fluorescence imaging and in vivo MRI of this dual-modal nano-probe were studied, with the results revealing that the Gd2O3:Tb NPs did not have a significant cytotoxic effect, making them good candidates for use as a dual-modal contrast agent for MRI and fluorescence imaging.