Synthesis, Study and Applications of High Spin Molecules

我们的研究旨在将金属离子的化学性质与未配对电子应用于量子计算应用中，并作为核磁共振成像（MRI）的温度敏感造影剂。我们将开发两种策略来制备和表征单分子磁体（smm），这些磁体表现出量子现象，使其适合作为量子比特（量子比特），量子计算机中的处理元素。首先，我们将使用手性配体与过渡金属和镧系离子一起组装基于多核簇的smm。其次，我们将使用两个族的大环来制备单核镧系smm。这是一个非常活跃的研究领域，介于化学、物理和材料科学之间。因此，它将通过D-Wave等公司为HQP在量子计算这一新兴领域提供优秀的跨学科培训，加拿大目前在这一领域处于国际领先地位，D-Wave为谷歌和NASA提供量子计算机。我们研究的一个关键组成部分是制造和研究多功能smm，其中它们的磁性能与第二个性质（例如，电子或光学）结合在一起，这可以产生新的现象，可用于读出单个分子的性质。我们的研究将揭示这些化合物独特性质的新见解，并为商业应用提供一条前进的道路。****核磁共振成像是一种医学技术，用于获取人体组织和器官的二维和三维图像。被称为造影剂的高自旋分子通常被用于提高MR图像的质量，每年有超过170万加拿大人受益于这项医疗诊断技术。该领域的最新进展是探索MRI作为一种非侵入性技术来确定人体组织和器官的温度，称为MRI测温。这对于医生利用热来治疗或摧毁小肿瘤的疗法，或在心脏骤停复苏后提高生存率和脑功能的靶向温度管理，或中风引起的动脉血栓阻塞，尤其重要。传统的核磁共振试剂对温度变化不是特别敏感，这使得某些目标（如脂肪组织和心脏）在低浓度下难以准确成像。因此，我们将开发一种新的温度敏感造影剂家族，并将其封装在脂质体（由与细胞膜相同的材料制成的微小囊泡）中，以降低其毒性并进一步提高其敏感性，以扩大MRI测温的临床应用，改善所有加拿大人的未来医疗保健

Our research aims to apply the chemistry of metal ions with unpaired electrons to develop high spin molecules for quantum computing applications, and as temperature sensitive contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We will develop two strategies to prepare and characterize single molecule magnets (SMMs) exhibiting quantum phenomena that make them suitable as quantum bits (qubits), the processing elements in quantum computers. Firstly, we will use chiral ligands together with transition metal and lanthanide ions to assemble polynuclear cluster-based SMMs. Secondly we will use two families of macrocycles to prepare mononuclear lanthanide SMMs. This is a very active field of research at the interface between chemistry, physics and materials science. It will therefore provide excellent interdisciplinary training for HQP in the emerging field of quantum computing in which Canada is currently internationally leading, through companies such as D-Wave, who provide quantum computers to Google and NASA. A key component of our studies is to make and study multifunctional SMMs, where their magnetic properties are combined together with a second property (e.g., electronic or optical), that can give rise to new phenomena which can be used to read-out the properties of the individual molecules. Our research will reveal new insights into the unique properties of these compounds and provide a way forward to commercial applications.****MRI is the medical technique used to acquire 2- and 3-D images of tissues and organs in the body. High spin molecules known as contrast agents are often administered to improve the quality of the MR image, and over 1.7 million Canadians benefit from this technology in medical diagnosis every year. Recent advances in this field have been to explore MRI as a non-invasive technique to determine the temperature of tissues and organs in the human body, known as MRI thermometry. This is particularly important for therapies where physicians use heat to treat or destroy small tumours, or for targeted temperature management which improves survival and brain function following resuscitation from cardiac arrest, or the blockage of an artery from a clot due to a stroke. Conventional MRI agents are not particularly sensitive to temperature changes which make certain targets (e.g., fatty tissue and the heart) difficult to accurately image at low concentration. We will therefore develop a new family of temperature-sensitive contrast agents and encapsulate them within a liposome (a tiny vesicle made out of the same material as a cell membrane) to reduce their toxicities and further increase their sensitivities to broaden the clinical applications of MRI thermometry, improving the future healthcare of all Canadians.***