Creation and evolution of net proton hyperpolarization arising from para-hydrogenation

When a hydrogenation reaction is carried out with gaseous hydrogen enriched in its para-isomer in the earth magnetic field (prior to adiabatic insertion of the sample in the NMR magnet), enhanced proton longitudinal order (represented by 2I(z)(A) I(z)(B)) is created but also difference of enhanced polarizations (I(z)(A) - I(z)(B)) In a first part, it is shown theoretically and experimentally that the longitudinal relaxation time of this polarization difference is roughly twice the ones of individual polarizations. The second part is devoted to a pulse sequence designed for transforming this difference into net hyperpolarization. The evolution of this global hyperpolarization is studied experimentally in a third part and it is observed that a fraction of hyperpolarization possesses an effective longitudinal relaxation time similar to the one of the initial polarization difference. Those experimental results are interpreted by numerical calculations based on Solomon-type equations including the longitudinal order and possibly dipolar-csa cross correlation rates. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.