We developed a multifunctional polymer coating for nanoparticles (NPs) that enables simultaneous detection by 19F MRI and shielding from blood plasma fouling. The coating is based on a water-soluble fluorinated poly(N-(2-fluoroethyl)acrylamide) (PFEAM) that shows high 19F MRI sensitivity, cytocompatibility and excellent antifouling properties, significantly outperforming polyethylene glycol. A proof-of-concept experiment was performed by synthesizing polymer-coated gold NPs that were successfully visualized by 19F MRI at magnetic fields close to the fields used in clinical practice. This universal approach can be used for coating and tracing of various NPs upon suitable polymer chain-end modification.

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine Prague 140 21 Czech Republic and Department of Science and Research Faculty of Health Studies Technical University of Liberec Liberec 461 17 Czech Republic

Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry Faculty of Science Charles University Prague 2 128 40 Czech Republic

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Czech Academy of Sciences Prague 6 162 06 Czech Republic

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