Hydrophobic radicals embedded in neutral surfactants for dynamic nuclear polarization of aqueous environments at 9.4 Tesla

Chem Commun (Camb). 2014 Sep 14;50(71):10198-201. doi: 10.1039/c4cc02152e.

Abstract

We show how large DNP enhancements of NMR signals can be obtained from several hydrophobic radicals that are solubilised in aqueous environments by a variety of biologically compatible neutral amphiphiles. In particular we show that the bi-radical TEKPOL can be incorporated into micelles formed by the surfactant polysorbate 80 (Tween-80), where we obtain large DNP enhancements (∼60) at 9.4 T and ∼100 K.