Although macroscopic ionic transport tensors, such as conductivity, are readily measured, accessing ion-specific, direction-dependent transport at the molecular level remains experimentally challenging. Here, we introduce a frequency-selective NMR methodology that enables direct measurement of diffusion and electrophoretic mobility tensors in ordered electrolytes. The approach exploits the orientational encoding inherent in anisotropic powder spectra as an angular filter and employs soft radiofrequency pulses to isolate narrow subsets of molecular orientations. This filtering converts conventional PGSE-NMR and electrophoretic NMR experiments into tensor-resolved measurements. Broadly applicable to systems with direction-dependent spin interactions, the method provides access to the principal components of electrophoretic mobility and diffusion tensors within a unified experimental framework. Demonstrated on a smectic ionic liquid crystal as a model ordered electrolyte, the technique yields the first direct experimental determination of anisotropic electrophoretic mobility in such materials. The methodology establishes a general experimentally accessible route to tensor-resolved transport measurements in complex anisotropic conductors relevant to electrochemical applications.
QC 20260702