Molecular weights of cyclic and hollow clusters measured by DOSY NMR spectroscopy.

The Stokes-Einstein expression of the diffusion coefficient as a function of the hydrodynamic radius of the diffusing object does not explicitly carry the mass dependency of the object. It is possible to correlate the translational self-diffusion coefficients D with the molecular weight M for an ensemble of cyclic or hollow clusters ranging from about 200 to 30,000 g x mol(-1). From this correlation, the mass of a cluster can be deduced from its diffusion coefficient.