Perfluorocarbon Emulsion Contrast Agents: A Mini Review

Perfluorocarbon emulsions offer a variety of applications in medical imaging. The substances can be useful for most radiological imaging modalities; including, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, computed tomography, and positron emission tomography. Recently, the substance has gained much interest for theranostics, with both imaging and therapeutic potential. As MRI sequences improve and more widespread access to 19F-MRI coils become available, perfluorocarbon emulsions have great potential for new commercial imaging agents, due to high fluorine content and previous regulatory approval as antihypoxants and blood substitutes. This mini review aims to discuss the chemistry and physics of these contrast agents, in addition to highlighting some of the past, recent, and potential applications.

Fluorous phthalocyanines and subphthalocyanines

Incorporating fluorine atoms into a molecule can endow it with various unique properties that enable materials applications. Selective solubility in fluorous solvents is achieved by a high fluorine content and selective partitioning into perfluorinated liquids over organic and aqueous phases provides orthogonal opportunities for chemistry and materials assembly. Although there is a growing number of partially fluorinated molecules, there are insufficient structural design principles to produce diverse fluorous soluble dyes. Herein, we report the synthesis of six fluorous phthalocyanine and subphthalocyanine dyes, and study their properties in the fluorous phase. Phthalocyanines generally display limited solubility and we also observed apparent aggregation in the fluorous phase. However, the nonplanar subphthalocyanines showed greater solubility. Subphthalocyanines also displayed fluorescence in selected solvents, and their emissive properties were investigated. The materials described expand the library of fluorous dyes and provide insights for the design of new molecules with fluorous solubility.

A SIMPLE review

The Superheated Instrument for Massive ParticLe searches (SIMPLE) consists of an astroparticle dark matter search experiment with large active mass superheated droplet detectors (SDDs), that are installed at the underground low noise laboratory in France (LSBB). Several factors made the use of SDDs an attractive approach for the detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), namely their intrinsic insensitivity to minimally ionizing particles, high fluorine content, low cost and operation at near ambient pressure and temperature. The signal that arises from the droplet phase transition generates a millimetric-sized gas bubble that is recorded by acoustic means. I describe the SIMPLE detectors, their acoustic instrumentation and signal analysis, which generated several science measurements executed through several phases over the last 20 years: the Pilot Phase with an exposure of 0.19 kgd, Phase I with an exposure of 0.42 kgd, Phase II with an exposure of 18.24 kgd and, an intended Phase III with an expected exposure increasing from 100 to 2500 kgd to be executed with a bubble chamber.

Fluorine in natural waters of the Odesa region: Medicaland geographical analysis

The study of fluorine content in the natural waters of the Odesa region was carried out. The content of fluorine in the waters of the centralized and non-centralized drinking waters supply of the Odesa region and the city of Odesa is determined. Areas with low and high fluorine content are found. Very low fluorine content is determined in Kiliyskyi, Bilyaivskyi, Kodimskyi and Savranskyi districts of the Odessa region. High fluorine content (above MAC) is determined in the Tarutinskiy and Arzizkyi districts. Correlation dependence of fluorine content in drinking water of the Odesa region and indicators of the prevalence of dental diseases (caries and fluorosis of teeth) of the population of the region and the city are established. It is determined that for most districts of the region there is a relationship between the content of fluorine in drinking waters and dental health. In some areas, this dependence is not sufficiently expressed, which is due to the geochemical and ecological characteristics of the territory. It is revealed that for the population of Odesa, who use water with very low fluoride content, high indicators of the disease for caries and fluorosis of teeth are characteristic, which is connected with the allocation of industrial areas with significant anthropogenic loading, including fluorine compounds. One of the possible causes of dental disease, even with optimal fluorine content in drinking water, can be the combination of its action with other chemical elements. Key words: fluorine, drinking water, Odesa region, Odesa city, caries and fluorosis of teeth.

Blood and bone parameters of cattle fed diets containing different phosphates and phosphorus: fluorine relations

<p>Forty-nine male calves were allotted in a randomized design, being that initially were performed seven replicates per treatment. At the end of the experiment were slaughtered four animals per treatment. The treatments were designed as following: CONT: control diet; DC120: Dicalcium Phosphate 120:1 ratio P: F; MDCP60: Monodicalcium Phosphate 60:1 ratio P: F; DC30: Dicalcium Phosphate 30:1 ratio P: F; TSP30: Triple Superphosphate 30:1 ratio P: F; DC10: Dicalcium Phosphate 10:1 ratio P: F; PRC10: phosphate rock concentrate of 10:1 of relation P: F. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) of animals who consumed PRC10 diet was greater than the ALP of animals that consumed TSP30, DC10 and DC120. This result was obtained with animals with 650 days of confinement. The ALP of the animals that consumed PRC10 was greater at 866 days than in the animals consuming TSP30 and DC120 diets. The ash content was greater in the DC10 diet and the diets CAR10 and DC120 achieved the lowest value. The fluorine content in bone was higher in diet DC10, while the diets DC120, PRC10 and MDCP60 obtained the lower values. The area of Haversian canals and the relation Havers/Osteon area were higher in the diet DC30 and the lowest value was encountered in DC10. The mottled teeth were more intensely observed in the treatments DC10 and PRC10. It was concluded that high fluorine content in the diet increases the deposition of fluorine in bones, which negatively affects in the histological parameters of teeth and bones of beef cattle.</p>

Fluorinated Pyrocarbon Prepared from Ketjenblack for Primary Lithium Battery

Pyrocarbons were obtained by heat-treatment of Ketjenblack at different temperature from 1000°C to 2400°C, and fluorinated in NF3atmosphere at 520°C to give CFxsamples with high fluorine content. The results indicate that the structure of both pyrocarbons and their derivative fluorides mainly depend on the heat-treatment temperature of raw carbon. The correlation between the electrochemical performance and the structure of pyrocarbon fluoride was discussed in detail. At an optimum condition, the yield of fluorination can come up to 90%, and the pyrocarbon fluoride, as cathode active material of lithium primary cell, gives an energy density up to 2200 Wh kg-1.