Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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SYMR: Symposium Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: from Applications in Condensed-Matter Physics to New Frontiers

SYMR 5: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: Frontiers and Applications

SYMR 5.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 15:00–15:15, H48

Ultrafast velocity-mapping in microfluidic setups — •Eva Paciok, Andrea Amar, Federico Casanova, and Bernhard Blümich — ITMC, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

NMR in combination with designated rf coils has proven to be a powerful tool for the investigation of microfluidic setups, e.g. microreactors, micromixers and fluid drops, since it has the potential to reveal both spectroscopic, spatial and velocity information non-invasively. Despite the high spatial resolution NMR offers, the temporal resolution of NMR imaging and velocity mapping experiments in microfluidics has been low so far, because the application of ultrafast NMR velocity mapping methods to microfluidics has failed. These methods are based on multi-echo generation give rise to problems concerning magnetic field inhomogeneities (EPI), rf field inhomogeneities (PGSE-RARE) and velocity/acceleration limitations (EPI and PGSE-RARE).

In this work, we exploit the advantages of the FLIESSEN (Flow Imaging Employing a Single Shot ENcoding) pulse sequence, a new ultrafast RARE-based imaging and velocity mapping method. An adjusted phase encoding strategy and a frequent update of velocity encoding during the multi-echo train makes FLIESSEN highly resilient to field inhomogeneities and velocity/acceleration effects. The performance of this technique is demonstrated on acetone flow in a microstructured phantom. Using FLIESSEN and a surface rf coil, high-fidelity 2D velocity maps were acquired within seconds.