Date of Award

6-1-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Natual Science and Mathematics

First Advisor

Gareth R. Eaton, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Andrei Kutateladze

Third Advisor

Michelle Knowles

Fourth Advisor

Keith Miller

Fifth Advisor

Scott Pegan

Sixth Advisor

Barry Zink

Keywords

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI), Imaging, Nitroxides, Rapid scan, Relaxation, Resonators

Abstract

Optimization of nitroxides as probes for EPR imaging requires detailed understanding of spectral properties such as spin lattice relaxation times, spin packet linewidths, and nuclear hyperfine splitting. Initial measurements of relaxation times for six low molecular weight nitroxides at X-band stimulated further measurement at frequencies between 250 MHz and 34 GHz. The impact of tumbling was studied with perdeuterated 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidinyl-1-oxyl (PDT) in five solvents with viscosities resulting in tumbling correlation times, τR, between 4 and 50 ps. A set of three 14N/15N pairs of nitroxides in water was selected such that τR varied between 9 and 19 ps. To test the impact of structure on relaxation, three additional nitroxides with τR between 10 and 26 ps were studied.

In the fast tumbling regime 1/T2 ~ 1/T1 and relaxation is dominated by spin rotation, modulation of A-anisotropy and a thermally activated process. The contribution to 1/T1 from spin rotation is independent of frequency and decreases as τR increases. The modulation of nitrogen hyperfine anisotropy increases as frequency decreases and as τR increases, dominating at low frequencies for τR~ 15 ps. The modulation of g anisotropy is significant only at 34 GHz. Inclusion of a thermally activated process was required to account for the observation that for most of the radicals, 1/T1 was smaller at 250 MHz than at 1-2 GHz. The thermally activated process likely arises from intramolecular motions of the nitroxide ring that modulate the isotropic A values.

A phantom of three 4 mm tubes containing different 15N,2H-substituted nitroxides was constructed for use at 250 MHz. Projections for 2D spectral-spatial images were obtained by continuous wave (CW) and rapid scan (RS) EPR using a bimodal cross-loop resonator. Relative to CW projections obtained for the same data acquisition time (5 min), RS projections had significantly improved image quality. All experiments were facilitated by advancements in resonator design and testing, which are also described.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Joshua R. Biller

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

279 p.

Discipline

Chemistry, Analytical chemistry, Physical chemistry

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