Mri measurements of T1, T2 and D for gels undergoing volume phase transition

Gels consist of crosslinked polymer network swollen in solvent. The network of flexible long-chain molecules traps the liquid medium they are immersed in. Some gels undergo abrupt volume change, a phase transition process, by swelling-shrinking in response to external stimuli changes in solvent composition, temperature, pH, electric field, etc. We report that during volume phase transition changes of NMR longitudinal relaxation time T1, NMR transverse relaxation time T2, and diffusion coefficient D of the PMMA gel, and D of the NIPA gel. We describe how the gels were synthesized and the reason of using the snapshot FLASH imaging sequence to measure T1, T2, and D. Since T1, T2 and D maps have identical field of view and data are extracted from identical areas from their respective maps, these values can be correlated quantitatively on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Thus a complete set of NMR parameters is measured in-situ: the gels are in their natural state, immersed in the liquid, during the phase transition. The results of spectroscopic method agree with that of snapshot FLASH imaging method. For the PMMA gel T1, T2 and D decrease when gels undergo volume phase transition between deuterated acetone concentration of 30% and 40%. At its contracted state, T1 is reduced to a little less than one order of magnitude, T2 over two orders of magnitude, and D over one order of magnitude, smaller from values of PMMA gel at the swollen state. At an elevated temperature of 54°C the thermosensitive NIPA gel is at a contracted state, with its D reduced to almost one order of magnitude smaller from that of the swollen NIPA at room temperature.