Abstract
The construction and functionalization of lanthanide-organic cages have been a research hotspot in coordination chemistry. Benefiting from the unique luminescent and magnetic properties of lanthanide ions, the potential applications of lanthanide-organic cages in biological imaging applications are promising, but only a few corresponding explorations have been reported. Herein, we introduced a series of lanthanide tetrahedral cages, (EunGd4–nL4) (sol)8 (n = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4, where L = (4,4′,4″-tris(4,4,4-trifluoro-1,3-dioxobutyl)-triphenylamine, and sol = dimethyl sulfoxide and methanol), with potential applications in biological imaging. Given the good luminescent and magnetic properties of Eu3+ and Gd3+ ions, Eu4L4 and Gd4L4 complexes show a high luminescence quantum yield of 29% in DMSO and large longitudinal relaxivity (r1) of 11.4 (mmol/L)−1/s at 0.5 T in water containing 1 vol% DMSO, respectively. The heterobimetallic Eu–Gd complexes achieve a dual imaging mode by combining luminescent and magnetic centers in one cage. When the Gd:Eu ratio increases from 1:3 to 3:1, the r1 values increases from 5.33 to 8.64 (mmol/L)−1/s, higher than that of commercial contrast agent Gd-DOTA (3.23 (mmol/L)−1/s). Owing to their low toxicity and good cell imaging ability toward ECA 109 cells, the self-assembled Eu–Gd heterobimetallic tetrahedral cages could be potential candidates for the multimodal imaging contrast agent.
Published Version
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