Synthesis and Characterisation of Superparamagnetic Polylactic acid based Polymers

Abstract

In this article, a novel superparamagnetic polymer is introduced for the use in magnetic particle imaging (MPI). This MPI-sensitive material is synthesized by the addition of superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) during the last step of the synthesis chain of the chosen polymer, that is in the case discussed here, polylactic acid (PLA). The synthesis products are characterized by magnetic particle spectrometry (MPS) as a utility indicator for MPI, because a strong signal in the harmonics of the signal spectrum is a necessary condition for visibility in MPI. We demonstrate experimentally that the produced compound is MPI-visible. A stable and biocompatible polymer material that gives contrast in MPI opens the door to many medical procedures, for instance, surgical devices may be coated with superparamagnetic PLA and then tracked with magnetic-based navigation instruments. Furthermore, stents and catheters may be coated with PLA, which would allow their navigation inside the vascular system, eliminating today’s radiation dose in the catheter lab.