The discovery of the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in elite athletes' doping control samples in 2003 demonstrated the availability of steroid derivatives prepared solely for doping purposes. Modern mass spectrometers utilizing electrospray ionization and collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) of analytes allow the structural characterization of steroids and their derivatization sites by the elucidation of fragmentation behaviors. A total of 21 steroids comprising either a 4,9,11-triene, a 3-keto-4-ene or a 3-keto-1-ene nucleus were investigated regarding their dissociation pathways, deuterated analogues were synthesized and fragmentation routes were postulated, permitting the identification of steroidal structures and modifications. Compounds based on a 4,9,11-triene steroid with an ethyl residue at C-13 (gestrinone analogues) generate abundant fragment ions at m/z 241 and 199, whereas the substitution of the C-13 ethyl group by a methyl residue (trenbolone analogues) results in a shift of m/z 241 to 227. Substances related to testosterone with a 3-keto-4-ene structure give rise to abundant fragment ions at m/z 109 and 97 whereas steroids with a 3-keto-1-ene nucleus eliminate the A-ring including the carbons C-1-C-4, in addition to C-19 that is proposed to migrate from C-10 to C-1 under CAD conditions.

Homogeneous hydrogenations of unsaturated substrates with parahydrogen yield strong NMR signal enhancements of the transferred 1H nuclei if the symmetry of H2 is broken in the resulting hydrogenated products. This chemically induced hyperpolarization known as Parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) is also transferred to other protons and heteronuclei (2H, 13C, 29Si, 31P) when the hydrogenation is initiated at low magnetic fields. Hydrogenating various fluorinated styrenes and phenylacetylenes, we show that PHIP-derived hyperpolarization is transferred to 19F not only in the Earth's magnetic field (ALTADENA condition) but also in a strong magnetic field, e.g., when carrying out the reaction in the NMR spectrometer (PASADENA condition). Upon conducting a systematic analysis of the observed PHIP transfer to 1H, 13C, and 19F in the hydrogenation products to elucidate the mechanisms that govern this parahydrogen-aided resonance transfer (PART), we conclude that high- and low-field PHIP transfer mechanisms differ in detail depending on either through-bond or through-space interactions. Substrates with high hydrogenation rates and long spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) yield the highest degree of heteronuclear hyperpolarization. Possible medical applications for hyperpolarized 19F-containing molecules as "active" contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are outlined.

Recently, Levitt and co-workers demonstrated that conserving the population of long-lasting nuclear singlet states in weak magnetic fields can lead to a preservation of nuclear spin information over times substantially longer than governed by the (high-field) spin-lattice relaxation time T1. Potential benefits of the prolonged spin information for magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy were pointed out, particularly when combined with the parahydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) methodology. In this contribution, we demonstrate that an increase of the effective relaxation time by a factor up to three is achieved experimentally, when molecules hyperpolarized by PHIP are kept in a weak magnetic field instead of the strong field of a typical NMR magnet. This increased lifetime of spin information makes the known PHIP phenomena more compatible with the time scales of biological processes and, thus, more attractive for future investigations.

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) were chosen as a solid support material for the immobilization of a new Wilkinson's-type catalyst. In a first step, polymer molecules (poly(triphenylphosphine)ethylene (PTPPE); 4-diphenylphosphine styrene as monomer) were grafted onto the silica nanoparticles by surface-initiated photoinferter-mediated polymerization (SI-PIMP). The catalyst was then created by binding rhodium (Rh) to the polymer side chains, with RhCl3⋅x H2O as a precursor. The triphenylphosphine units and rhodium as Rh(I) provide an environment to form Wilkinson's catalyst-like structures. Employing multinuclear ((31)P, (29)Si, and (13)C) solid-state NMR spectroscopy (SSNMR), the structure of the catalyst bound to the polymer and the intermediates of the grafting reaction have been characterized. Finally, first applications of this catalyst in hydrogenation reactions employing para-enriched hydrogen gas (PHIP experiments) and an assessment of its leaching properties are presented.

Hyperpolarization (HP) techniques are increasingly important in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS). HP methods have the potential to overcome the fundamentally low sensitivity of magnetic resonance (MR). A breakthrough of HP-MR in life sciences and medical applications is still limited by the small number of accessible, physiologically relevant substrates. Our study presents a new approach to extend PHIP to substrates that primarily cannot be hyperpolarized due to a steady intramolecular re-arrangement, the so-called keto-enol tautomerism. To overcome this obstacle we exploited the fact that instead of the instable enol form the corresponding stable ester can be used as a precursor molecule. This strategy now enables the hydrogenation which is required to apply the standard PHIP procedure. As the final step a hydrolysis is necessary to release the hyperpolarized target molecule. Using this new approach ethanol was successfully hyperpolarized for the first time. It may therefore be assumed that the outlined multi-step procedure can be used for other keto-enol tautomerized substances thereby opening the application of PHIP to a multitude of molecules relevant to analyzing metabolic pathways.