Design and construction of a small embeddable nuclear magnetic resonance sensor utilizing 3D-printed components

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Materials Science
• Chemistry

Background:

• Traditional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) sensors can be expensive and complex to construct.
• 3D printing offers a potential solution for creating cost-effective and customizable sensor components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and build an affordable, embeddable NMR sensor utilizing 3D printing technology.
• To evaluate the sensor's performance in characterizing different sample compositions.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of the NMR sensor using 3D-printed parts, neodymium magnets, and an RF coil.
• Magnetic field simulations to optimize magnet placement for a homogeneous B0 field.
• Testing the sensor with various samples (eraser, milk, yogurt, cement paste) using Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill pulse sequences.
• Data analysis through exponential decay fitting and Inverse Laplace Transformation to determine T2 lifetimes and distributions.

Main Results:

• A cost-effective NMR sensor was successfully designed and constructed.
• The sensor achieved a homogeneous B0 field of 180 mT.
• The sensor demonstrated the ability to detect compositional variations in immersed samples by measuring T2 lifetimes.

Conclusions:

• 3D printing is a viable method for producing embeddable NMR sensors.
• The developed sensor is capable of characterizing materials based on their T2 relaxation properties.
• This technology holds promise for cost-effective material analysis in diverse applications.