Aspects of structural order in 209Bi-containing particles for potential MRI contrast agents based on quadrupole enhanced relaxation |
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| Authors: | Hermann Scharfetter Christian Gösweiner Paul Josef Krassnig Carina Sampl Martin Thonhofer Roland Fischer |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Medical Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austriahermann.scharfetter@tugraz.at;3. Institute of Medical Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria;4. Institute of Paper, Pulp and Fiber Technology and Institute for Chemistry and Technology of Materials, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria;5. Laboratory for Characterization and Processing of Polymers (LCPP), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia;6. Institute of Inorganic Chemistry Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTQuadrupole relaxation enhancement (QRE) has been suggested as the key mechanism for a novel class of field-selective, potentially responsive magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents. In previous publications, QRE has been confirmed for solid compounds containing 209Bi as the quadrupolar nucleus (QN). For QRE to be effective in aqueous dispersions, several conditions must be met, i.e. high transition probability of the QN at the 1H Larmor frequency, water exchange with the bulk and comparatively slow motion of the Bi-carrying particles. In this paper, the potential influence of structural order within the compounds (‘crystallinity’) on QRE was studied by nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy in one crystalline and two amorphous preparations of Triphenylbismuth (BiPh3). The amorphous preparations comprised (1) a shock-frozen melt and (2) a granulate of polystyrene which contained homogeneously distributed BiPh3 after common dissolution in THF and subsequent evaporation of the solvent. In contrast to the crystalline powder which exhibits strong, narrow NQR peaks the amorphous preparations did not reveal any NQR signals above the noise floor. From these findings, we conclude that the amorphous state leads to a significant spectral peak broadening and that for efficient QRE in potential contrast agents structures with a high degree of order (near crystalline) are required. |
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| Keywords: | Quadrupole enhanced relaxation magnetic resonance imaging nuclear quadrupole resonance triphenylbismuth recrystallisation |
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