Continuous flow production of concentrated hyperpolarized xenon gas from a dilute xenon gas mixture by buffer gas condensation

Abstract

We present a new method for the continuous flow production of concentrated hyperpolarized xenon-129 (HP 129Xe) gas from a dilute xenon (Xe) gas mixture with high nuclear spin polarization. A low vapor pressure (i.e., high boiling-point) gas was introduced as an alternative to molecular nitrogen (N2), which is the conventional quenching gas for generating HP 129Xe via Rb-Xe spin-exchange optical-pumping (SEOP). In contrast to the generally used method of extraction by freezing Xe after the SEOP process, the quenching gas separated as a liquid at moderately low temperature so that Xe was maintained in its gaseous state, allowing the continuous delivery of highly polarized concentrated Xe gas. We selected isobutene as the candidate quenching gas and our method was demonstrated experimentally while comparing its performance with N2. Isobutene could be liquefied and removed from the Xe gas mixture using a cold trap, and the concentrated HP 129Xe gas exhibited a significantly enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal. Although the system requires further optimization depending on the intended purpose, our approach presented here could provide a simple means for performing NMR or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements continuously using HP 129Xe with improved sensitivity.