Because of the atom's large, flexible outer electron shell, the NMR spectrum changes in response to surrounding conditions, and can therefore be used as a probe to measure the chemical circumstances around the xenon atom. For instance xenon dissolved in water, xenon dissolved in hydrophobic solvent, and xenon associated with certain proteins can be distinguished by NMR.
Hyperpolarized xenon can be used by surface-chemists. Normally, it is difficult to characterize surfaces using NMR, because signals from the surface of a sample will be overwhelmed by signals from the far-more-numerous atomic nuclei in the bulk. However, nuclear spins on solid surfaces can be selectively polarized, by transferrering spin polarization to them from hyperpolarized xenon gas. This makes the surface signals strong enough to measure, and distinguishes them from bulk signals.