Stabilities in water and transfer activity coefficients from water to nonaqueous solvents of 15-crown-5 and 16-crown-5-metal ion complexes

Stability constants of 1 : 1 16-crown-5 (16C5)-metal ion complexes were determined in water at 25°C by conductometry and potentiometry with ion-selective electrodes. The selectivity sequences of 16C5 in water for univalent and bivalent metal ions are Ag⁺ > Na⁺ Tl⁺ > K⁺ and Sr²⁺ > Ba²⁺ Pb²⁺, respectively. The stability of a given 16C5-metal ion complex in water is much lower than might be expected on the basis of the solvation power (i.e. relative solubility of the metal ion) of water for the metal ion. The same tendency is observed for the cases of 15-crown-5 (15C5) -metal ion complexes. Transfer activity coefficients () of 15C5 and 16C5 for tetradecane (TD)/water, TD/methanol, TD/acetonitrile, and propylene carbonate/water systems were determined at 25°C. From these data, contributions of a methylene group and an ether oxygen atom to the log value of a crown ether were then obtained. The values from water to acetonitrile, propylene carbonate, and methanol of 15C5- and 16C5-univalent metal ion complexes were calculated, s, M⁺, and L being a solvent, a univalent metal ion, and a crown ether, respectively. The log value is greater than the corresponding log value. The log values are negative. This indicates that, although the M^- ions are more soluble in water than in the nonaqueous solvents, when the crown ether forms a complex with the M⁺ ion, the complex becomes more soluble in the nonaqueous solvents than in water, compared with the free crown ether. It was concluded from this finding that the unexpectedly low stability of the crown ether-M⁺ complex in water is attributed to strong hydrogen bonding between ether oxygen atoms of the free crown ether and water.