Hollow Nanocapsules in Biomedical Imaging Applications - Nanotechnology for Biomedical Imaging and Diagnostics - page 80

4

Hollow NaNocapsules iN
Biomedical imagiNg
applicatioNs

Sergey A. Dergunov and Eugene Pinkhassik
Department of Chemistry, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA

4.1 iNtroductioN

This chapter will focus on the application of hollow polymer nanocapsules (NCs)
in biomedical imaging. The main emphasis will be on vesicle-templated NCs. Other
NCs, for example, those produced by layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly, have been dis-
cussed in several excellent reviews. We have focused on developments in the past
decade, and research discussed in this chapter concerns synthesis and characterization
of polymer NCs or applications in a biomedical setting. In addition, we have
attempted to highlight relevant research and review articles from earlier work that
had led to the foundation of this field.
A critical characteristic of hollow NCs is the interior core, suitable for the entrap-
ment of contrast agents or molecules acting as chemosensors. Functional performance
of NCs is determined by the chemical composition of the capsule walls. With this in
mind, this chapter will discuss the synthesis and characterization of hollow NCs,
strategies for entrapment of molecules, functional performance of NCs, and exam-
ples of potential applications of NCs in biomedical imaging (Fig. 4.1). The synthesis
of NCs with different architectures as well as structural and functional character-
ization is presented in Section “Synthesis and characterization of nanocapsules.”
Section “Compartmentalization of molecules in hollow nanocapsules” deals with