T1 Measurement by NMR Inversion Recovery: An Upper-Division Undergraduate Experiment in Advanced NMR Techniques Demonstrating the Concept of Contrast-Enhanced MRI

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the tool of choice for organic chemists to determine the molecular structure of organic molecules and, as a result, is a fundamental topic in the organic chemistry curriculum. A novel laboratory module has been developed to expand the scope of NMR spectroscopy beyond structure validation at the undergraduate level to include how organic chemistry and FT-NMR spectroscopy are directly related to contrast-assisted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This laboratory module allows students to synthesize commercially available MRI contrast agents and exposes students to the important concepts of longitudinal relaxation time (T1) and relaxation rate (r1), and how both properties can be enhanced by paramagnetic contrast agents. By using an NMR spectrometer for inversion recovery experiments, students will be able to bridge the concepts of NMR and MRI, while understanding how organic chemistry plays a vital role in a technology that revolutionized diagnostic and therapeutic medicine.