Heteropolymetallic f-d complexes as contrast agents for multimodal imaging: synthesis and spectroscopic properties.

The objective of this project is the development of new multimodal contrast agents, and examination of their structural and photophysical properties. The chemical structure of the multimodal contrast agents contains one or more gadolinium (III) ions and one or more luminescent transition-metal ions such as ruthenium(II) or rhenium(I). The project includes: (1) synthesis of ligands and heterocyclic polymetallic metal complexes, (2) determination of the stability of the complexes, (3) study of the structure of the metal complexes in solution, (4) measurement of the relaxivity of the complexes. A central topic of the project is the structure determination of complexes by spectroscopic methods such as UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy, luminescence spectroscopy, ESI-MS, but especially advanced NMR methods (NMR of hetero nuclei, multi-dimensional NMR).

Keywords:MRI contrast agents, multimodal imaging, luminescence, f-d complexes, lanthanides, rare earths, transition metals

Disciplines:Inorganic chemistry