Spectrophotometric investigation of the reaction of eriochrome cyanin RC and magnesium and aluminium

The reaction of magnesium or aluminium ions with Eriochrome Cyanin RC in alkaline medium leads to formation of a complex of type ML. The molar absorptivities of the complexes are 1.90 +/- 0.14 x 10(3)1. mole(-1).cm(-1) at 570 nm for the magnesium complex and 3.87 +/- 0.04 x 10(4) at 555 nm for the aluminium complex. The conditional stability constants of the complexes were determined at various pH values, and hence the overall formation constants, which were found to be log beta(111) = 8.65 +/- 0.06 for MgOHL, log beta(121) = 22.29 +/- 0.05 for AlH(2)L, log beta(111) = 18.25 +/- 0.14 for AlHL, and log beta(101) = 13.66 +/- 0.01 for AlL.