Terminal Diazirines Enable Reverse Polarization Transfer from 15 N 2 Singlets

Abstract : Diazirine moieties are chemically stable and have been incorporated into biomolecules without impediment of biological activity. The 15N2 labeled diazirines are appealing motifs for hyperpolarization supporting relaxation protected states with long‐lived lifetimes. The (‐CH15N2) diazirine groups investigated here are analogues to methyl groups, which provides the opportunity to transfer polarization stored on a relaxation protected (‐CH15N2) moiety to 1H, thus combining the advantages of long lifetimes of 15N polarization with superior sensitivity of 1H detection. Despite the proximity of 1H to 15N nuclei in the diazirine moiety, 15N T1 times of up to (4.6±0.4) min and singlet lifetimes Ts of up to (17.5±3.8) min are observed. Furthermore, we found terminal diazirines to support hyperpolarized 1H2 singlet states in CH2 groups of chiral molecules. The singlet lifetime of 1H singlets is up to (9.2±1.8) min, thus exceeding 1H T1 relaxation time (at 8.45 T) by a factor of ≈100.