Oil production waste products could lower the cost of magnetic resonance imaging
Oil production waste products could lower the cost of magnetic resonance imaging lead image
To highlight areas of interest in the body, magnetic resonance imaging uses contrast agents. However, many agents use gadolinium, which are difficult to source and can be harmful to the environment. Akakuru et al. developed contrast agents derived from crude-oil waste products, repurposing waste into more useful, cheaper products.
The work is the first to connect byproducts from oil and gas operations—asphaltenes—with tumor imaging by creating iron-doped carbon dots derived from those waste products. The process is low cost, scalable, and environmentally conscious, unlocking new possibilities for repurposing industrial residues in advanced healthcare applications.
“The iron-doped, asphaltene-derived carbon dots (ACD-Fe) exhibit excellent water re-dispersibility and biocompatibility, making them suitable for biomedical applications,” author Milana Trifkovic said. “They enhance MRI contrast in tumor cells by increasing the accessibility of iron ions to water molecules due to the hydrophilic nature of the asphaltene-derived carbon dots.”.
The new materials were synthesized through a complexation between iron ions and the asphaltene-derived carbon dots. To investigate biocompatibility, the researchers co-incubated ACD-Fe with tumor cells. For in-vivo imaging evaluation, ACD-Fe was injected into murine tumor-bearing mice, and MRI scans were performed to evaluate its contrast-enhancement capabilities.
“Beyond tumor imaging, this platform opens the door to a broader range of bioimaging, diagnostic, and therapeutic technologies built from underutilized asphaltene-based waste streams,” Trifkovic said.
The authors plan to continue improving the clinical applicability of ACD-Fe.
“Future work will focus on functionalizing ACD-Fe with tumor-targeting agents to improve imaging performance and reduce nanoparticles loss during systemic circulation,” Trifkovic said.
Source: “Fe-doped asphaltenes carbon dots for tumor magnetic resonance imaging,” by Ozioma Udochukwu Akakuru, Sabad-e Gul, Zhusheng Liu, Steven Bryant, Aiguo Wub, and Milana Trifkovic, Physics of Fluids (2025). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0268179 .
