Novel Earth's Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Copper Chloride

The Terranova-MRI Earth’s Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (EFNMR) device is a low-cost alternative to conventional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) devices. An EFNMR spectrometer relies on the globally available, relatively homogeneous Earth’s magnetic field for detection and imaging, but suffers from inherently lower sensitivity in comparison to traditional high-field NMR systems. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the sensitivity of the Terranova Earth’s Field MRI in detecting various concentrations of copper chloride-water solutions. First, I determined the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation time for copper chloride-water solutions of five concentrations over temperatures from 0-100°C in. Then, I designed two homebuilt containers using FreeCAD and SketchUp software and printed these containers using an UltiMaker 3D printer. I filled these containers with the various concentrations of copper-chloride-water and imaged them using gradient echo and filtered back projection (FBP) imaging. Both the spin-lattice relaxation times and the MRI images showed that the Terranova-MRI was able to accurately differentiate between the various concentrations of copper chloride-water and thus measure irregularities in copper chloride absorption. This suggests that the Terranova Earth’s Field MRI could be an inexpensive, easily transportable alternative to conventional MRI machines for basic medical applications.