Imaging with the NMR-MOUSE

Clearly, the basic imaging scheme can be extended to include relaxation-time contrast for discrimination of variations in cross-link density and strain, and the ID MRI-MOUSE (magnetic resonance imaging MOUSE) can be extended with further gradient coils to permit imaging in three dimensions. Numerous applications of the MRI-MOUSE can be envisioned in soft matter analysis, in particular in those areas, where imaging with conventional equipment has proven to be successful, and where smaller, less expensive, and mobile devices are in need. 

NMR imaging has been tested in a multitude of cases and many simple and sophisticated methods have been developed. The most successful applications of the method, however, are in the field of soft matter, because transverse relaxation times are compatible with current hardware technology. In the non-medical field, NMR imaging of elastomers shows great promise for genuine applications, and in addition to academic laboratories, the method is used in industry for product development and control. While academic efforts often strive towards the development more sophisticated measurement schemes and 

Continuous support of this work by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FCI) is gratefully acknowledged. 

Haacke, R.W. Brown, M.R. Thompson and R. Venkatesan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Physical Principles and Sequence Design, Wiley, New York, 1999. 

Vlaardingerbroek and J.A. den Boer, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Theory and Practice, Second Edition, Springer, Berlin, 1999. 

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Figure 7.25 One-dimensional imaging with the NMR-MOUSE (a) Single-point imaging sequence for phase-encoding of space, (b) drawing of the NMR-MOUSE with coils for pulsed field gradients, (c) sample of an elastomer sheet with parallel textile fibres and one-dimensional NMR image with the space direction perpendicular to the fiber direction...

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