The central objective of the HyMag project is to develop new chemical and instrumental approaches to generate > 1000 fold sensitivity enhancements in NMR and MRI, on solutions of molecules with high throughput and in a quasi-continuous flow manner for the very first time. This will be made possible through the development of new hyperpolarizing mesoporous matrices inspired from heterogeneous catalysis. These matrices will be enclosed as capsules in a polarizing station of a dedicated DNP polarizer, in which hyperpolarization will be generated in arbitrary solutions of molecules in a quasi-continuous flow manner. Solutions will be frozen, polarized without contamination, melted and subsequently released towards the MR machine (NMR or MRI) within a few seconds. The HyMag project will inevitably have great impact in academic and industrial areas that are currently using NMR or MRI and where poor sensitivity is still a severe obstacle, with the potential of revolutionizing the field.
