Sebastian Z. Kiss, Niel MacKinnon and Jan G. Korvink
Nuclear magnetic resonance at low field strength is an insensitive spectroscopic technique, precluding portable applications with small sample volumes, such as needed for biomarker detection in body fluids. Here we report a compact double resonant chip stack system that implements in situ dynamic nuclear polarisation of a 130 nL sample volume, achieving signal enhancements of up to − 60 w.r.t. the thermal equilibrium level at a microwave power level of 0.5 W. This work overcomes instrumental barriers to the use of NMR detection for point-of-care applications.
Computer aided design (CAD) views of the ODNP probe inside a palm-sized permanent magnet. The microfluidic chip features a sample reservoir and a MW resonator. A stacked figure-8 type RF transceive coil accepts the sample container and is sandwiched between a set of bi-planar electrical shim coils. A B0-field modulation coil is part of phase sensitive EPR detection. Figure used with permission.