131Xe NMR spectroscopy has even been applied to characterize xenon compounds [43] and [44]. Spectroscopic 131Xe studies of surfaces have also been performed at low temperatures [45] and in variety of porous

materials [46], [47], [48], [49] and [50]. Thermally polarized 131Xe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with liquefied xenon provided a contrast sensitive to surface adsorbed water in aerogels [51]. Unfortunately, the low gyromagnetic ratio and often kHz-broad linewidths of 131Xe lead to exceedingly small NMR signal-to-noise ratios when thermally polarized gas is used. As a result, the surface-specific insights provided by this isotope have primarily been confined to extremely high surface to volume ratio environments that generate rapid T1 relaxation or systems that can withstand xenon at high pressures. In contrast, the

relatively long relaxation PLX4032 supplier times observed in the gas phase and in the presence of low surface to volume materials make thermally polarized 131Xe NMR unpractical, in particular at low gas densities. However, these conditions are ideal for studies employing hyperpolarized (hp) 131Xe that provides orders of magnitude of signal enhancement but also requires long relaxation times in order to preserve the hyperpolarization. Systems Dabrafenib with longitudinal 131Xe relaxation times substantially shorter than T1 = 1 s do not permit meaningful applications of hyperpolarized 131Xe NMR, unless interfaces of theses systems to the bulk gas phase were to be studied. Like all NMR active noble gas isotopes, high non-equilibrium nuclear spin polarization can be generated in gaseous 131Xe through alkali metal vapor spin-exchange

optical pumping (SEOP) [52] and [53]. The fundamental details of hp 131Xe production have been explored in some detail for by Volk [29] and [54], Happer [30], [31] and [32], Pines [33], Mehring [34], and their respective co-workers. Luo et al. have also studied 131Xe SEOP using cesium in high magnetic fields at 11.7 T [55]. Optically detected NMR experiments using SEOP were applied in the past to study the influence of the glass container surfaces on the gas-phase hp 131Xe relaxation and were used to investigate xenon adsorption phenomena on glass surfaces [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34] and [35]. The shape of macroscopic containers with centimeter-sized dimensions was found to cause an anisotropy in the effective electric field gradient that can lead to a small quadrupolar splitting, typically in the Hz regime or less. Following earlier work with 201Hg and 83Kr [56] and [57], the 131Xe splitting was observed at low magnetic fields in the gas phase contained in cylindrical cells [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34] and [35]. The splitting was strongly dependent on the aspect ratio of the cell dimensions and the cell orientation within the magnetic field.