| Nanoparticles are a promising diagnostic agent with applications in tumor imaging and targeted cancer treatment. They can offer multifunctional properties by combining imaging methods to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and disease monitoring. Two such complementary tools are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence imaging. In this thesis, a dual solvent exchange approach was chosen to facilitate the self-assembly of amphiphilic diacetylene monomers onto hydrophobic iron ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Various concentrations of the diacetylene monomers, 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA) and 10,12-heptacosadiynoic acid (HCDA), were coated onto ∼14 nm iron ferrite MNPs. The diacetylene monomer coating were cross-linked to a stable blue colored polydiacetylene (PDA) coating after applying UV light. The resulting PDA-MNP hybrid displayed characteristic chromogenic and fluorogenic in response to thermal stress. This novel multifunctional nanoparticle system holds exciting potential for dual-modality diagnostics applications. |
