Spectrophotometric and Potentiometric Studies on the Binding Abilities of Two Novel Tripodal Imine-Phenol Ligands Towards Al(III) and Ga(III)

The aqueous coordination behavior of two novel tripodal imine-phenol ligands, cis,cis-1,3,5-tris{(2-hydroxybenzilidene)aminomethyl}cyclohexane (TMACHSAL, L¹) and cis,cis-1,3,5-tris{(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene]aminomethyl}cyclohexane (Me₃- TMACHSAL, L²) with Al³⁺ and Ga³⁺ has been investigated at an ionic strength of 0.1 mol⋅dm⁻³ KCl and 25±1 °C by potentiometric and spectrophotometric methods. Both ligands formed various monomeric metal complex species MLH₃, MLH₂, MLH, ML and MLH₋₁ with Ga(III); and MLH₃, ML and MLH₋₁ with Al(III). The Ga(III) complexes showed higher thermodynamic stability than the Al(III) complexes. Semi-empirical PM6 calculations along with TDDFT/B3LYP/3-21G calculations have been performed to complement the experimental measurements. The calculated structure of the metal complexes predicted a distorted octahedral geometry where favorable ring-flipping from the equatorial conformation in uncomplexed ligands to the axial conformation was observed upon chelation.