Polymer-gold nanohybrids with potential use in bimodal MRI/CT: enhancing the relaxometric properties of Gd(III) complexes

We present a new synthetic strategy to produce Gd(III)-decorated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for potential use as bimodal contrast agents (CA) for computed X-ray tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The hybrid AuNPs exhibit high molar relaxivities (>12 000 mM(-1) s(-1) per particle), indicative of highly efficient CT/MRI CAs.