Antifouling fluoropolymer-coated nanomaterials for 19F MRI

Abstract

We developed a multifunctional polymer coating for nanoparticles (NPs) that enables simultaneous detection by ¹⁹F MRI and shielding from blood plasma fouling. The coating is based on a water-soluble fluorinated poly(N-(2-fluoroethyl)acrylamide) (PFEAM) that shows high ¹⁹F MRI sensitivity, cytocompatibility and excellent antifouling properties, significantly outperforming polyethylene glycol. A proof-of-concept experiment was performed by synthesizing polymer-coated gold NPs that were successfully visualized by ¹⁹F MRI at magnetic fields close to the fields used in clinical practice. This universal approach can be used for coating and tracing of various NPs upon suitable polymer chain-end modification.