title: Accessing long-lived disconnected spin-1/2 eigenstates through spins > 1/2.
abstract: Pairs of chemically equivalent (or nearly equivalent) spin-1/2 nuclei have been shown to create disconnected eigenstates that are very long-lived compared with the lifetime of pure magnetization (T1). Here the classes of molecules known to have accessible long-lived states are extended to include those with chemically equivalent spin-1/2 nuclei accessed by coupling to nuclei with spin > 1/2, in this case deuterium. At first, this appears surprising because the quadrupolar interactions present in nuclei with spin > 1/2 are known to cause fast relaxation. Yet it is shown that scalar couplings between deuterium and carbon can guide population into and out of long-lived states, i.e., those immune from the dominant relaxation mechanisms. This implies that it may be practical to consider compounds with (13)C pairs directly bound to deuterium (or even (14)N) as candidates for storage of polarization. In addition, experiments show that simple deuteration of molecules with (13)C pairs at their natural abundance is sufficient for successful lifetime measurements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, ‡Department of Chemistry, §Duke Small Molecule Synthesis Facility, ∥Department of Radiology, and ⊥Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Claytor
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Theis
authors.forename: Yesu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gooden
authors.forename: Warren S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D000114:Acetylene / Q000737:chemistry*; D003903:Deuterium / Q000737:chemistry; D060328:Magnetic Phenomena; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
chemical_list: D003903:Deuterium; D000114:Acetylene