A general approach to silicate nanoshells: gadolinium silicate and gadolinium silicate:europium nanoshells for dual-modality optical and MR imaging.

A general approach involving a solvothermal method was developed to synthesize a series of silicate nanoshells (<100 nm) where both Gd silicate and Gd silicate:Eu nanoshells were further demonstrated to exhibit dual-modality MRI and optical imaging functions.