Colloid Surface A 2007, 299:209–216.CrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions BK carried out the ligand modulation and nanoemulsion and drafted the manuscript. JY conceived of the experimental design and condition. E-KL carried out the synthesis

of magnetic nanoparticles. JP conceived of the particle relaxivity analysis. J-SS SCH772984 order participated in the modification of magnetic resonance imaging sequence. HSP performed the statistical analysis. Y-MH and SH participated in the design of the study and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Nanoparticles of noble metals exhibit unique optical, chemical, catalytic, and electronic properties which make them attractive for a wide range of applications in many domains. The most common way for preparing such nanoparticles, named as ‘wet chemistry’, consists in reducing a soluble metal precursor (AuIII or AgI) by a soluble reducing agent in the presence of a stabilizing species which keeps the formed nanoparticles from aggregation. Turkevich-Fens’s method uses AuCl4 − ions and sodium citrate as both reducer and stabilizing agent and gives approximately 20-nm spherical nanoparticles [1, 2]. Numerous

other stabilizing ABT-263 ic50 agents have been further used. In Brust’s synthesis, a two-phase aqueous-organic solution with JPH203 research buy tetraoctylammonium bromide transfer species and a strong stabilizing thiol agent are implemented and the reaction of AuCl4 − and NaBH4 in these conditions allows the preparation of stable 1- to 5-nm Au clusters [3]. Regarding silver

nanoparticles, the most common synthesis is the reduction of silver cation/complex by chemical agents such as borohydride or hydrazine [4, 5]. From the so-called polyol process displaying ethylene glycol as both reductant and solvent, various nanoparticles including Au and Ag could be obtained [6, Cytidine deaminase 7]. As hazardous products occur and may generate biocompatibility or environment problems, a recent development of ‘green synthesis’ was stimulated, for which environmentally friendly reducing agents are used, including saccharides or natural extracts [8]. Suspensions of supported metal nanoparticles on inorganic solids can be formed by wetness impregnation or alkaline (co-) precipitation [9, 10]. These routes give low metal loads (wt.%) and require a final gas reduction treatment by H2 or CO, with some possible efficiency problems for the complete conversion to metal. Fe2+ ion is a ‘green’ reducing species present in the crystalline structure of various solids including sulfides, carbonates, hydroxisalts, and clays. As the oxidation of structural FeII ions usually occurs in a very cathodic potential domain, the transfer of electrons to numerous oxidants is therefore possible.