PEGylated Carbon Nanocapsule: A Universal Reactor and Carrier for In Vivo Delivery of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Nanoparticles.

We have developed PEGylated mesoporous carbon nanocapsule as a universal nanoreactor and carrier for the delivery of highly crystalline hydrophobic/hydrophilic nanoparticles (NPs) which shows superior biocompatibility, dispersion in body fluids, good biodistribution and NPs independent cellular uptake mechanism. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic NPs without surface modification were synthesized in-situ inside the cavities of mesoporous carbon capsules (200-850 nm). Stable and inert nature of carbon capsules in a wide range of reaction conditions like high temperature and harsh solvents, make it suitable for being used as nano/micro-reactors for the syntheses of a variety of NPs for bio-imaging applications, such as: NaYF4:Eu3+(5%), LaVO4:Eu3+(10%), GdVO4:Eu3+(10%), Y2O3:Eu3+(5%), GdF3:Tb3+(10%), Mo, Pt, Pd, Au and Ag. Multiple types of NPs (Y2O3:Eu3+(5%) (hydrophobic) and GdF3:Tb3+(10%) (hydrophilic)) were co-loaded inside the carbon capsules to create a multimodal agent for magneto-fluorescence imaging. Our in vivo study clearly suggests that carbon capsules have biodistribution in many organs including liver, heart, spleen, lungs, blood pool and muscles.