Kinetics and mechanism of formation and dissociation of copper(II) and nickel(II) complexes of the Schiff base bis(acetylacetone)ethylenediimine in aqueous-organic solvent media

Summary

In NH₄NO₃+NH₄OH buffered 10% (v/v) dioxan-water media (pH 7.0–8.5), thePseudo-first-order rate constant for the formation of the title complexes M(baen),i.e. ML, conforms to the equation 1/k_obs=1/k+1/(kK_o.s · T_L), where T_L stands for the total ligand concentration in the solution, K_o.s is the equilibrium constant for the formation of an intermediate outer sphere complex and k is the rate constant for the formation of the complex ML from the intermediate. Under the experimental conditions the free ligand (pK_a>14) exists virtually exclusively in the undissociated form (baenH₂ or LH₂) which is present mostly as a keto-amine in the internally hydrogen-bonded state. Although the observed formation-rate ratio k^Cu/k^Ni is of the order of 10⁵, as expected for systems having “normal” behaviour, the individual rate constants are very low (at 25°C, k^Cu=50 s⁻¹ and k^Ni=4.7×10⁻⁴s⁻¹) due to the highly negative ΔS≠ values (−84.2±3.3 JK⁻¹M⁻¹ for CuL and −105.8±4.1 JK⁻¹M⁻¹ for NiL); the much slower rate of formation of the nickel(II) complex is due to higher ΔH≠ value (41.2±1.0 kJM⁻¹ for CuL and 78.2±1.2 kJM⁻¹ for NiL) and more negative ΔS≠ value compared to that of CuL. The K_o.s values are much higher than expected for simple outer-sphere association between [M(H₂O)₆] and LH₂ and may be due to hydrogen bonding interaction.

In acid media ([H⁺], 0.01–0.04 M) these complexes M(baen) dissociate very rapidly into the [M(H₂O)₆]²⁺ species and baenH₂, followed by a much slower hydrolytic cleavage of the ligand into its components,viz. acetylacetone and ethylenediamine (protonated). For the dissociation of the complexes k_obs=k₁[H⁺]+k₂[H⁺]². The reactions have been studied in 10% (v/v) dioxan-water media and also ethanolwater media of varying ethanol content (10–25% v/v) and the results are in conformity with a solvent-assisted dissociativeinterchange mechanism involving the protonated complexes.