Thomas Trantzschel

Parahydrogen-induced polarization transfer to 19F in perfluorocarbons for 19F NMR spectroscopy and MRI.

Fluorinated substances are important in chemistry, industry, and the life sciences. In a new approach, parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) is applied to enhance (19)F MR signals of (perfluoro-n-hexyl)ethene and (perfluoro-n-hexyl)ethane. Unexpectedly, the end-standing CF3 group exhibits the highest amount of polarization despite the negligible coupling to the added protons. To clarify this non-intuitive distribution of polarization, signal enhancements in deuterated chloroform and acetone were compared and (19)F-(19)F NOESY spectra, as well as (19)F T1 values were measured by NMR spectroscopy. By using the well separated and enhanced signal of the CF3 group, first (19)F MR images of hyperpolarized linear semifluorinated alkenes were recorded.

Understanding the leaching properties of heterogenized catalysts: A combined solid-state and PHIP NMR study

Para-hydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) NMR in solution, combined with solid-state NMR, can be efficiently employed for the highly sensitive in-situ detection of the leaching properties of immobilized catalysts. The knowledge of this property is important for possible applications of PHIP experiments in medicine, biology or industry, where leached catalysts poison the solution of hyperpolarized products. As experimental example Wilkinsons catalyst RhCl(PPh(3))(3) (1) immobilized on mesoporous silica is chosen. As model reaction the hydrogenation of styrene in solvents with different polarities (methanol-d(4), acetone-d(6) and benzene-d(6)) is used. A (31)P solid-state MAS-NMR study reveals that there are two different species of catalysts on the silica, namely coordinatively bound catalysts and physisorbed catalyst. Only the second species exhibits substantial leaching, which is visible in a strong PHIP enhancement of the reaction product.

Time domain para hydrogen induced polarization

Para hydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) is a powerful hyperpolarization technique, which increases the NMR sensitivity by several orders of magnitude. However the hyperpolarized signal is created as an anti-phase signal, which necessitates high magnetic field homogeneity and spectral resolution in the conventional PHIP schemes. This hampers the application of PHIP enhancement in many fields, as for example in food science, materials science or MRI, where low B(0)-fields or low B(0)-homogeneity do decrease spectral resolution, leading to potential extinction if in-phase and anti-phase hyperpolarization signals cannot be resolved. Herein, we demonstrate that the echo sequence (45°-τ-180°-τ) enables the acquisition of low resolution PHIP enhanced liquid state NMR signals of phenylpropiolic acid derivatives and phenylacetylene at a low cost low-resolution 0.54 T spectrometer. As low field TD-spectrometers are commonly used in industry or biomedicine for the relaxometry of oil-water mixtures, food, nano-particles, or other systems, we compare two variants of para-hydrogen induced polarization with data-evaluation in the time domain (TD-PHIP). In both TD-ALTADENA and the TD-PASADENA strong spin echoes could be detected under conditions when usually no anti-phase signals can be measured due to the lack of resolution. The results suggest that the time-domain detection of PHIP-enhanced signals opens up new application areas for low-field PHIP-hyperpolarization, such as non-invasive compound detection or new contrast agents and biomarkers in low-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Finally, solid-state NMR calculations are presented, which show that the solid echo (90y-τ-90x-τ) version of the TD-ALTADENA experiment is able to convert up to 10% of the PHIP signal into visible magnetization.

New investigations of technical rhodium and iridium catalysts in homogeneous phase employing para-hydrogen induced polarization.

It is shown that the para-hydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) phenomenon in homogenous solution containing the substrate styrene is also observable employing simple inorganic systems of the form MCl(3)·xH(2)O (M=Rh, Ir) as catalyst. Such observation confirms that already very simple metal complexes enable the creation of PHIP signal enhancement in solution. This opens up new pathways to increase the sensitivity of NMR and MRT by PHIP enhancement using cost-effective catalysts and will be essential for further mechanistic studies of simple transition metal systems.

Low-cost LED-based Photo-CIDNP Enables Biocompatible Hyperpolarization of 19F for NMR and MRI at 7 T and 4.7 T

Abstract Substrates containing 19F can serve as background‐free reporter molecules for NMR and MRI. However, in vivo applications are still limited due to the lower signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) when compared with 1H NMR. Although hyperpolarization can increase the SNR, to date, only photo‐chemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (photo‐CIDNP) allows for hyperpolarization without harmful metal catalysts. Photo‐CIDNP was shown to significantly enhance 19F NMR signals of 3‐fluoro‐DL‐tyrosine in aqueous solution using flavins as photosensitizers. However, lasers were used for photoexcitation, which is expensive and requires appropriate protection procedures in a medical or lab environment. Herein, we report 19F MR hyperpolarization at 4.7 T and 7 T with a biocompatible system using a low‐cost and easy‐to‐handle LED‐based set‐up. First hyperpolarized 19F MR images could be acquired, because photo‐CIDNP enabled repetitive hyperpolarization without adding new substrates.

Parahydrogen-induced polarization of carboxylic acids: a pilot study of valproic acid and related structures

Parahydrogen‐induced polarization (PHIP) is a promising new tool for medical applications of MR, including MRI. The PHIP technique can be used to transfer high non‐Boltzmann polarization, derived from parahydrogen, to isotopes with a low natural abundance or low gyromagnetic ratio (e.g. 13C), thus improving the signal‐to‐noise ratio by several orders of magnitude. A few molecules acting as metabolic sensors have already been hyperpolarized with PHIP, but the direct hyperpolarization of drugs used to treat neurological disorders has not been accomplished until now. Here, we report on the first successful hyperpolarization of valproate (valproic acid, VPA), an important and commonly used antiepileptic drug. Hyperpolarization was confirmed by detecting the corresponding signal patterns in the 1H NMR spectrum. To identify the optimal experimental conditions for the conversion of an appropriate VPA precursor, structurally related molecules with different side chains were analyzed in different solvents using various catalytic systems. The presented results include hyperpolarized 13C NMR spectra and proton images of related systems, confirming their applicability for MR studies. PHIP‐based polarization enhancement may provide a new MR technique to monitor the spatial distribution of valproate in brain tissue and to analyze metabolic pathways after valproate administration. Copyright