Spatially Resolved Analytical Chemistry - Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Materials

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New instrumental methods of 'seeing' have always led to an increased knowledge and understanding of nature. It was true in the sixteenth century when Galileo's optical telescope revolutionized astronomy. It is still true in the twenty-first century. The Scanning Tunneling Microscope, invented in the early 1980s, has completely changed our knowledge and understanding of surfaces. The development of X-ray Radiography and the Electron Microscope led to a host of new clinical and industrial analyses. The 2014 Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded for high resolution fluorescence microscopy. New processes and products soon follow when new knowledge is acquired.      Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is probably the most flexible and powerful diagnostic imaging technique available to clinical medicine. Its invention in the early 1970s has generated a multi-billion dollar/year industry and permitted unparalleled and detailed diagnosis of a variety of human ailments. Nevertheless, traditional clinical MRI techniques are unable to visualize a large variety of  materials such as porous and microporous solids, polymers, thin films, and gases. These systems are all of technological and scientific importance.  Clinical MRI methods usually emphasize speed of image acquisition and image contrast to differentiate tissues.  Clinical MRI methods are not usually quantitative, yet quantitative measurements of concentration and other simple physical parameters are paramount if we wish MRI to be an analytical methodology.    Imaging is one of the most powerful scientific paradigms for understanding. We frequently state 'a single picture is worth a thousand words'. We even equate visualization with understanding 'I see what you mean'. The UNB MRI Centre develops MRI methods to both 'see' and to quantitatively measure materials, since sometimes 'a single number is worth a thousand pretty pictures'.   The UNB MRI Centre has invented, and continues to invent, MRI methods which solve many of the outstanding technical problems in materials science MRI. The imaging techniques under development at UNB permit visualization and quantification of a very large range of physico-chemical systems. This NSERC Discovery grant specifically supports research into variable field MRI, imaging with non-equilibrium sample magnetization, and new frequency encode MRI methods. These new imaging methodologies will be applied to challenging, yet practical, materials science and materials processing questions posed by collaborators.