Advanced Mapping of Xe-129 Hyperpolarizer Performance

The development and construction of the second-generation automated batch-mode Xe-129 hyperpolarizer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center allowed the scientists to systematically map the key parameters of the Spin-Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP) for the stopped-flow process on the clinical scale, i.e. contrast agent production of ~1 L per cycle. The overall efficiency of the stopped-flow SEOP process is a complex interplay of key parameters: gas-phase Rubidium concentration (which is controlled by the optical pumping cell temperature), laser photon flux, and Xe content of the to-be-hyperpolarized gas mixture. This multi-demensitonal space was sampled by studying 2D maps of Xe-129 hyperpolarization level and hyperpolarization rates as a function of laser photon flux and optical pumping cell temperature for several gas mixture compositions. These advances not only allowed finding the optimal SEOP hyperpolarization conditions, but also provided valuable insights for future improvement of Xe-129 hyperpolarizer designs. This research was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B in 2014. Read the details in the article PDF available in the open access at the American Chemical Society web site: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jp501493k