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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem.
Sec. Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1511720

Singlet spin order in spin pairs coupled via non-bonded interactions

Provisionally accepted
Giuseppe Pileio Giuseppe Pileio 1*Dolnapa Yamano Dolnapa Yamano 1*Craig Eccles Craig Eccles 2*Graham J Tizzard Graham J Tizzard 1Sam Thompson Sam Thompson 1*
  • 1 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
  • 2 Magritek GmbH, Philipsstraße 8, 52068, Aachen, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Fluorine spin pairs that are constrained in spatial proximity show large scalar spin-spin couplings, despite the atoms being separated by several bonds. This is due to a non-bonded atomic interaction related to partial overlapping of fluorine p-orbitals. In this paper we exploit this phenomenon to create long-lived singlet spin order on the fluorine spin pair. This form of order, which, in this example molecule, is more than an order of magnitude longer than longitudinal order, has the potential to be useful in magnetic resonance imaging and molecular tracing experiments, because of the lack of endogenous fluorine in the human body and the high sensitivity achievable in 19 F NMR.

    Keywords: Long-lived spin states, Nuclear Singlet Spin Order, Through-Space Scalar Coupling, NMR, Fluorine NMR

    Received: 15 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pileio, Yamano, Eccles, Tizzard and Thompson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Giuseppe Pileio, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
    Dolnapa Yamano, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
    Craig Eccles, Magritek GmbH, Philipsstraße 8, 52068, Aachen, Germany
    Sam Thompson, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

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