Roy E. Hoffman, Elad Shabtai, Mordecai Rabinovitz, Vivekanantan S. Iyer, Klaus Müllen, Amarjit K. Rai, Eric Bayrd and Lawrence T. Scott
The solvations of various polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon alkali metal salts are studied using their self-diffusion rates measured by NMR spectroscopy. The moiety size is more dependent on the anion than the cation. The self-diffusion rates of the neutral compounds are found to be predictable while the salts diffuse considerably slower than the unsolvated species indicating the presence of a solvent shell. The apparent moiety size is temperature dependent for the salts in ethereal solutions indicating a solvation shell of varying size.