Liquid State Dynamic Nuclear Polarization at High Magnetic Field

Published December 12, 2019

A microwave beam (rainbow and solid blue arrow) is used to excite a free electron (purple), which in turn enhances (dashed blue arrows) magnetic resonance signals (black arrows) on near-by carbon atoms (yellow), thus allowing high sensitivity in combination with high-resolution.

This finding demonstrates a path forward to dramatically enhance sensitivity for molecule concentration measurement by magnetic resonance using Overhauser DNP.

What did scientists discover?

Exquisite sensitivity gains have been achieved permitting the observation at very low concentrations of molecules through a newly-developed technology, called "Dynamic Nuclear Polarization using the scalar Overhauser effect".

Why is this important?

This finding demonstrates a path forward in using the Overhauser effect to dramatically enhance sensitivity of molecules in low concentrations. This effect is particularly strong for small molecules that are important to detect in experiments on metabolomics (medicine), natural products (biology), and molecular dynamics (chemistry), thus opening a path toward a large variety of research applications.</p

Who did the research?

Thierry Dubroca¹, Sungsool Wi¹, Johan van Tol¹, Lucio Frydman^1,2, Stephen Hill^1,3

¹National MagLab, ²Weizmann Institute, ³Florida State University

Why did they need the MagLab?

At present, this research can only be performed at the MagLab because it requires the use of a unique in-house developed high magnetic field (14T) liquid dynamic nuclear polarization spectrometer. The spectrometer was specifically designed for high resolution (high magnetic field and high field homogeneity) and high sensitivity (strong Overhauser effect in liquids and large sample volumes).