Toward Optimizing and Understanding Reversible Hyperpolarization of Lactate Esters Relayed from para-Hydrogen.

The SABRE-Relay hyperpolarization method is used to enhance the 1H and 13C NMR signals of lactate esters, which find use in a wide range of medical, pharmaceutical, and food science applications. This is achieved by the indirect relay of magnetization from para-hydrogen, a spin isomer of dihydrogen, to OH-containing lactate esters via a SABRE-hyperpolarized NH intermediary. This delivers 1H and 13C NMR signal enhancements as high as 245- and 985-fold, respectively, which makes the lactate esters far more detectable using NMR. DFT-calculated J-couplings and spin dynamics simulations indicate that, while polarization can be transferred from the lactate OH to other 1H nuclei via the J-coupling network, incoherent mechanisms are needed to polarize the 13C nuclei at the 6.5 mT transfer field used. The resulting sensitivity boost is predicted to be of great benefit for the NMR detection and quantification of low concentrations (

Classical Wigner model based on a Feynman path integral open polymer.

The classical Wigner model is one way to approximate the quantum dynamics of atomic nuclei. Here, a new method is presented for sampling the initial quantum mechanical distribution that is required in the classical Wigner model. The new method is tested for the position, position-squared, momentum, and momentum-squared autocorrelation functions for a one-dimensional quartic oscillator and double well potential as well as a quartic oscillator coupled to harmonic baths of different sizes. Two versions of the new method are tested and shown to possibly be useful. Both versions always converge toward the classical Wigner limit. For the one-dimensional cases, some results that are essentially converged to the classical Wigner limit are acquired and others are not far off. For the multi-dimensional systems, the convergence is slower, but approximating the sampling of the harmonic bath with classical mechanics was found to greatly improve the numerical performance. For the double well, the new method is noticeably better than the Feynman-Kleinert linearized path integral method at reproducing the exact classical Wigner results, but they are equally good at reproducing exact quantum mechanics. The new method is suggested as being interesting for future tests on other correlation functions and systems.

Formation of the Hydroxyl Radical by Radiative Association.

The reaction rate constant for the radiative association of O((3)P) and H((2)S) has been calculated by combining a few different methods and taking account of both direct and resonance-mediated pathways. The latter includes both shape resonances and Feshbach type inverse predissociation. The reaction rate constant is expressed as a function of temperature in the interval 10-30000 K. This reaction may be astrochemically relevant and is expected to be of use in astrochemical networks.