Dr Monique Tourell
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MR (Barth Group), Centre for Advanced Imaging
The University of Queensland, presents:

Applications of Long-Lived Singlet states in Diffusion NMR

Talk abstract: 

Diffusion-NMR is a well-established means of characterizing the structure and fluid transport properties of porous media. Morphological parameters, such as the pore-size distribution, porosity and tortuosity of the pore space can all be determined from measuring the restricted diffusion coefficient at “long” measurement times; i.e. when the displacement of the diffusing particles exceeds the characteristic length scale of the sample. In traditional MR diffusion experiments, the longitudinal relaxation time, T1, sets an upper limit on the diffusion measurement time (a few seconds) and, consequently the length scales that can be investigated (~ 50 - 100 µm).

Singlet-assisted diffusion NMR (SAD-NMR) exploits long-lived singlet states to supersede this limit, allowing diffusion to be measured over several minutes [1]. SAD-NMR has recently been used to determine compartment sizes of up to 2 mm in diffusion-diffraction experiments [2] and measure the tortuosity in random packings of mono-sized spheres > 500 μm in diameter, with subsequent pore spaces > 150 μm [3]. Preliminary results of diffusion in 3D-printed scaffolds for tissue engineering, demonstrate the ability of SAD-NMR to characterize dynamic, anisotropic porous systems.

[1] Pileio, G et al. J.  Magn. Reson. 252 (2015)

[2] Pileio, G., and Ostrowska, S. J. Magn. Reson. 285 (2017)

[3] Tourell, M. C. et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 20(20) (2018)

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