Direct one-pot synthesis of glutathione capped hydrophilic FePt-CdS nanoprobe for efficient bimodal imaging application.

One-pot synthesis methods for development of hydrophilic imaging nanoprobes have advantages over multi-pot methods due to their simple procedures, less probability for degradation of efficiency, superior control over growth and morphology, cost effectiveness, improved scope for scale-up synthesis etc. Here, we present a novel one-pot facile synthesis of hydrophilic colloidal bimodal nanoprobe (FePt-CdS) prepared through a seed-mediated nucleation and growth technique. In this facile synthesis of complex nanostructure, glutathione (GSH) was used as the capping agent to render biocompatibility and dispersibility. The microstructure, surface, optical, magnetic, biocompatibility, relaxivity and imaging property of the developed nanoprobe have been studied. The microstructural characterizations reveal average size of the particle as ~9-11nm with bleb shaped morphology. Spectroscopic characterization depicts the development of GSH capped CdS QDs on FePt, surface functionalities and their stability. The magnetic measurements confirm the superparamagnetic property in the developed bimodal nanoprobe. In addition, the GSH capping imparts excellent biocompatibility, water dispersibility, and fluorescence property to the probe. In RAW 264.7 macrophage cells, the bimodal nanoprobes exhibit intense green and red fluorescence. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence imaging (FI) study depict high transverse relaxivity and visible range fluorescent property in the synthesized FePt-CdS nanoprobe. Hence, the developed bimodal nanoprobe can be used as a potential candidate in simultaneous FI and MR imaging.