Morphological Evolution and Magnetic Property of Rare‐Earth‐Doped Hematite Nanoparticles: Promising Contrast Agents for T1‐Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
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| Authors: | Hao Wan Pengfei Rong Xiaohe Liu Litong Yang Yong Jiang Ning Zhang Renzhi Ma Shuquan Liang Haidong Wang Guanzhou Qiu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China;2. School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China;3. Department of Radiology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P. R. China;4. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan |
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| Abstract: | A series of uniform rare‐earth‐doped hematite (α‐Fe2O3) nanoparticles are synthesized by a facile hydrothermal strategy. In a typical case of gadolinium (Gd)‐doped α‐Fe2O3, the morphology and chemical composition can be readily tailored by tuning the initial proportion of Gd3+/Fe3+ sources. As a result, the products are observed to be stretched into more elongated shapes with an increasing dopant ratio. As a benefit of such an elongated morphological feature and Gd3+ ions of larger effective magnetic moment than Fe3+, the doped product with the highest ratio of Gd3+ at 5.7% shows abnormal ferromagnetic features with a remnant magnetization of 0.605 emu g?1 and a coercivity value of 430 Oe at 4 K. Density of states calculations also reveal the increase of total magnetic moment induced by Gd3+ dopant in α‐Fe2O3 hosts, as well as possible change of magnetic arrangement. As‐synthesized Gd‐doped α‐Fe2O3 nanoparticles are probed as contrast agents for T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging, achieving a remarkable enhancement effect for both in vitro and in vivo tests. |
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| Keywords: | doping hematite magnetic property T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging |
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