Fluorinated ligands have a variety of uses in chemistry and industry, but it is their medical applications as 18F-labelled positron emission tomography (PET) tracers where they are most visible. In this work, we illustrate the potential of using 19F-containing ligands as future magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents and as probes in magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies by significantly increasing their magnetic resonance detectability through the signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) hyperpolarization method. We achieve 19F SABRE polarization in a wide range of molecules, including those essential to medication, and analyze how their steric bulk, the substrate loading, polarization transfer field, pH, and rate of ligand exchange impact the efficiency of SABRE. We conclude by presenting 19F MRI results in phantoms, which demonstrate that many of these agents show great promise as future 19F MRI contrast agents for diagnostic investigations.
Keywords: 19F NMR spectroscopy; hyperpolarization; insensitive nuclei enhanced by polarization transfer (INEPT); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE).