“…When nitroxide radicals were applied to the in vivo MRI measurement, radical reduction occurred and resulted in a significant decrease in the MRI contrast [33,34,35]. For example, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine- N -oxyl (TEMPO) derivatives, such as 4-oxo-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine- N -oxyl (TEMPONE) and 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine- N -oxyl (TEMPOL), were reduced rapidly (half-life ( τ 1/2 ) < 2 min) to the corresponding hydroxylamines in the presence of ascorbic acid [36]. In our molecular design, we expected that the interplay between four long hydrophilic tails in 2 and four neighboring substituents in 4 14 should enhance the reduction resistance to ascorbic acid sterically.…”