Para-hydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) is a technique capable of producing spin polarization at a magnitude far greater than state-of-the-art magnets. A significant application of PHIP is to generate contrast agents for biomedical imaging. Clinically viable and effective contrast agents not only require high levels of polarization but heterogeneous catalysts that can be used in water to eliminate the toxicity impact. Herein, we demonstrate the use of Pt nanoparticles capped with glutathione to induce heterogeneous PHIP in water. The ligand-inhibited surface diffusion on the nanoparticles resulted in a ¹H polarization of P=0.25 % for hydroxyethyl propionate, a known contrast agent for magnetic resonance angiography. Transferring the ¹H polarization to a ¹³C nucleus using a para-hydrogen polarizer yielded a polarization of 0.013 %. The nuclear-spin polarizations achieved in these experiments are the first reported to date involving heterogeneous reactions in water.

Para-hydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) is a technique capable of producing spin polarization at a magnitude far greater than state-of-the-art magnets. A significant application of PHIP is to generate contrast agents for biomedical imaging. Clinically viable and effective contrast agents not only require high levels of polarization but heterogeneous catalysts that can be used in water to eliminate the toxicity impact. Herein, we demonstrate the use of Pt nanoparticles capped with glutathione to induce heterogeneous PHIP in water. The ligand-inhibited surface diffusion on the nanoparticles resulted in a ¹H polarization of P=0.25 % for hydroxyethyl propionate, a known contrast agent for magnetic resonance angiography. Transferring the ¹H polarization to a ¹³C nucleus using a para-hydrogen polarizer yielded a polarization of 0.013 %. The nuclear-spin polarizations achieved in these experiments are the first reported to date involving heterogeneous reactions in water.

Non-invasive local probes are needed to characterize bulk defects in binary and ternary chalcogenides. These defects contribute to the non-ideal behavior of topological insulators. The bulk electronic properties are studied via ¹²⁵Te NMR in Bi₂Te₃, Sb₂Te₃, Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃, Bi₂Te₂Se, and Bi₂Te₂S. A distribution of defects gives rise to asymmetry in the powder lineshapes. The Knight shift, line shape, and spin-lattice relaxation are investigated in terms of how they affect carrier density, spin-orbit coupling, and phase separation in the bulk. The present study confirms that the ordered ternary compound Bi₂Te₂Se is the best topological insulator candidate material at the present time. These results, which are in good agreement with transport and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies, help establish the NMR probe as a valuable method to characterize the bulk properties of these materials.