Experimental identification of diffusive coupling using 2D NMR

Spin relaxation based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods have been used extensively to determine pore size distributions in a variety of materials. This approach is based on the assumption that each pore is in the fast diffusion limit but that diffusion between pores can be neglected. However, in complex materials these assumptions may be violated and the relaxation time distribution is not easily interpreted. We present a 2D NMR technique and an associated data analysis that allow us to work directly with the time dependent experimental data without Laplace inversion to identify the signature of diffusive coupling between different pores. Measurements on microporous glass beads and numerical simulations are used to illustrate the technique.