Molecular self-diffusion measurement by stimulated echo of selected 13C–1H bonds: case of the glucose metabolites

A new NMR method is presented to measure selectively the self-diffusion coefficient of molecules with 13C–1H bonds. The method is based on the selection of spectral lines by both 13C chemical-shift and 13C–1H J-coupling encoding, which generally is adequate to individuate a molecular species. Although the approach has preferential utilization in bio-molecular systems, it may be employed when a direct or indirect chemical bond has chemical shift and J-coupling coordinates able to localize uniquely a certain molecular species. The method may also be utilized to attain self-diffusion weighted NMR imaging (MRI) of single molecular species. Here results on glucose metabolites in aqueous solutions are presented. The approach shows a chemical selectivity, which is higher than the traditional NMR stimulated echo approach.