Ion pairing in ethanol/water solution probed by electrophoretic and diffusion NMR.

We demonstrate that a combination of electrophoretic NMR and diffusion NMR experiments can measure the average charge carried by ions in solution. This average charge is used as a quantitative indicator of ion pairing. Our results show that there is a Hofmeister relation in the ion pairing between monovalent anions and the tetramethylammonium cation in 95% ethanol/water solution. The ion pairing of the divalent sulfate ion was larger than that shown by any of the monovalent anions.