Colloidal samarium oxide nanoparticles prepared by femtosecond laser ablation and fragmentation for nuclear nanomedicine

Nanotechnology promises a major improvement of efficacy of nuclear medicine by targeted delivery of radioactive agents to tumors, but this approach still needs novel efficient nanoformulations to maximize diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Here, we present a two-step method of laser ablation and fragmentation in water to produce non-radioactive 152Sm-enriched samarium oxide nanoparticles (Sm NPs), which can be converted to radioactive form of 153Sm beta-emitters by neutron capture reaction. We found that laser ablation in deionized water leads to the formation of NPs having diverse morphology and broad size dispersion. To improve size characteristics of formed NPs, we applied additional femtosecond laser fragmentation step, which made possible a good control of mean NPs size under a drastic narrowing of size dispersion, and the spherical shape of formed NPs. Obtained colloidal solutions of Sm NPs were stable for several weeks after the synthesis. The formed NPs present a very promising object for nuclear nanomedicine.