Fe/Mn Multilayer Nanowires as High-Performance T(1)-T(2) Dual Modal MRI Contrast Agents

A lot of nanomaterials are using T(1)-T(2) dual mode magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agents (CAs), but multilayer nanowire (NW) with iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) as T(1)-T(2) dual modal CAs has not been reported yet. Herein, we synthesized a Fe/Mn multilayer NW with an adjustable Fe layer, as T(1)-T(2) dual-mode CAs. The relaxation performance of Fe/Mn multilayer NW was studied at 1.5 T. Results show that, when the length of the Fe layer is about 10 nm and the Mn is about 5 nm, the r(1) value (21.8 mM(−1)s(−1)) and r(2) value (74.8 mM(−1)s(−1)) of the Fe/Mn multilayer NW are higher than that of Mn NW (3.7 mM(−1)s(−1)) and Fe NW (59.3 mM(−1)s(−1)), respectively. We predict that our Fe/Mn multilayer NW could be used as T(1)-T(2) dual mode MRI CAs in the near future.