Tian Cheng1, Mor Mishkovsky2, 3, Matthias Junk4, Dariush Hinderberger4, Kerstin Mnnemann4, Arnaud Comment1
1Institute of Physics of Biological Systems, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 2Department of Radiology, Universit de Lausanne, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 3Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 4Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany
Dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization allows achieving tremendous gain in signal-to-noise ratio in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. Once the polarized sample is dissolved, the stable radicals used as polarizing agents become undesirable since their presence is an additional source of nuclear spin relaxation and their toxicity might be an issue. We demonstrate here that by using spin-labeled thermoresponsive hydrophilic polymer networks it is possible to prepare hyperpolarized solutions free of stable radicals immediately after dissolution. We applied this method to hyperpolarize 13C-labeled tert-butanol which has been recently shown to be a promising contrast agent for perfusion imaging.