Validation of pH-Metric Technique for Measurement of pKa and log Pow of Ionizable Herbicides

Abstract

Knowing the values of pK_a and partition coefficients between 1-octanol and water (P_ow) of ionizable herbicides helps us to understand the movement of these compounds in plants and soil. However, shake-flask and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. though valuable for measurement of log P_ow of herbicide molecules that do not ionize in aqueous solution, are difficult to use for ionizable molecules; this is especially so for molecules that form ion pairs having appreciable log P_ow values, those with multiple ionizations and for bases with high pK_a values. Our aim in this study was to validate the use of the pH-metric technique (based on potentiometric titration) for measurements of pK_a and log P_ow of ionizable standard substances and herbicides. The values obtained show good correlation with results from other techniques, including shake-flask and HPLC. The OECD Guideline for Testing of Chemicals 117, adopted 30th March 1989, describes the use of HPLC for the measurement of log P_ow. It is hoped that these studies and further testing of this technique will permit it to be included in these OECD guidelines.     

The relationship among pKa, pH, and binding constants in the interactions between boronic acids and diols—it is not as simple as it appears

In our continuing efforts into designing boronic acid-based sensors that recognize cell-surface carbohydrates, it has been necessary to examine various factors that affect the binding affinity between a boronic acid moiety and a diol. The current prevailing view is that the strongest boronic acid/diol complexes are generated by a combination of high solution pH and a low boronic acid pK_a. However, there has never been a systematic examination of the relationship among the binding constants, boronic acid pK_a, and the pH of the solution. Herein we report our findings with a series of 25 arylboronic acids with various substituents and their binding affinities with diols. We have found that (1) the relationship between the pK_a of monosubstituted phenylboronic acid and its substituents can be described using a Hammet plot; (2) the optimal pH for binding is not always above the pK_a of the boronic acid, and is affected by the pK_a values of the boronic acid and the diol, and other unknown factors; and (3) the general belief that boronic acids with lower pK_a values show greater binding affinities for diols is not always true.     

Determination of pKa of dyes by electrical impedance spectroscopy

In this work, we analyze the electrical response of aqueous solutions of dyes as a function of pH. When the acid-base equilibrium is reached, it is possible to detect structural transitions related with changes in molecular conformation. To this, it is necessary the introduction of parallel plates into the solution and from analysis of Nyquist diagrams of samples, it is possible to determine the values of pK_a. The advantage is the absence of redox markers in solution, thus avoiding charge transfer stimulated by the diffusion processes. The effects measured on the electrical response are function of the dye molecular aggregation state, which is structurally dependent on the solution protonation conditions. The detection of aggregated molecules such as dimers, trimers, and oligomers defines Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) as a fundamental tool for the analysis of pK_a of dyes.     

Multiwavelength Spectrophotometric Determination of Acid Dissociation Constants. Deconvolution of Binary Mixtures of Ionizable Compounds

ABSTRACT

A spectral deconvolution method based on target factor analysis has been developed to determine pK_a values of binary mixtures of monoprotic and/or diprotic ionizable compounds. The technique makes use of the approach of Frans and Harris, which has been implemented previously for mixtures of monoprotic compounds (Anal. Chem. 1985, 57, 1718-1721), to extract the unknown pK_a values. The method has been illustrated by using the multiwavelength spectrophotometrictitation data of binary mixtures of: I. benzoic acid and phenol, 2. benzoic acid and nicotinic acid, 3. p-aminosalicylic acid and phthalic acid. It was demonstrated that the pK_a values as determined in this study are in good agreement with the literature.     

In pursuit of key features for constructing electrochemical biosensors – electrochemical and acid-base characteristic of self-assembled monolayers on gold

ABSTRACT

Electrochemical biosensors are a well-known group of tools used widely in a variety of industries. Due to interactions between analytes and a surface, a measurable signal occurs which can then be processed to quantitative and/or qualitative data. The knowledge of surfaces’ electrochemical properties as well as their pK_a is of great importance when it comes to the construction of biosensors based on an electrochemical signal. In our work, we focused on determining electrochemical properties as well as pK_a of thiol-based SAMs – commonly used linker layers in biosensors. By applying cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical spectroscopy we were able to describe the overall resistive behaviour of SAMs synthesised with both alkanethiols and thiols with carboxyl and amine groups. Coherent use of contact angle measurements let us also describe the overall polarity of the investigated surfaces. The obtained data of pK_a values differed from the ones described for bulk solutions of modifying agents, which yields important information for further modification of the surface.     

Calculation of acidic dissociation constants in water: solvation free energy terms. Their accuracy and impact

Three polarizable continuum models, DPCM, CPCM, and IEFPCM, have been applied to calculate free energy differences for nine neutral compounds and their anions. On the basis of solvation free energies, the pK_a values were obtained for the compounds in question by using three thermodynamic cycles: one, involving the combined experimental and calculated data, as well as two other cycles solely with calculated data. This paper deals with the influence of factors such as the SCRF model applied, choice of a particular thermodynamic cycle, atomic radii used to build a cavity in the solvent (water), optimization of geometry in water, inclusion of electron correlation, and the dimension of the basis set on the solvation free energies and on the calculated pK_a values. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi: ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A fast high throughput method for the determination of acidity constants by capillary electrophoresis. 3. Basic internal standards

A set of 25 monoprotic bases is proposed as internal standards for pK(a) determination by capillary electrophoresis. The pK(a) of the bases is determined and compared with available literature data. The capillary electrophoresis internal standard method offers numerous advantages over other typical methods for pK(a) determination, especially of analysis time and buffer preparation. However, it requires disposing of appropriate standards with reference pK(a) value. The set of bases established in this work together with the set of acids previously established provide a reference set of compounds with well-determined acidity constants that facilitate the process of selecting appropriate internal standards for fast pK(a) determination by capillary electrophoresis in high throughput screening of pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, the performance of the method when acidic internal standards are used for the determination of acidity constants of basic internal standards has also been tested. Although higher errors may be expected in this case, good agreement is observed between determined and literature values. These results indicate that in most cases structural similarity between the analyte and the internal standard might not be an essential requirement in the internal standard method.     

Kinetics of the Protonation of Macrocyclic Amines in the Presence of Monovalent Cations in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

For macrocyclic bases such as: 1-aza-15-crown-5 (N15C5),1,4,10-trioxa-7,13-diazacyclopentadecan (21), 1,7,10,16-tetraoxa-4,13-diazacyclooctadecan (22) and 1, 4, 7, 13, 16-pentaoxa-10, 19-diazacycloheneicosane (23), the kinetics of deprotonation and protonation reactions in the presence of monovalent cations was studied using the temperature jump technique. For the sake of comparison, the measurements were also performed for 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO) base, which does not form complexes with monovalent cations. The monovalent cations affect the temperature dependence of the kinetic parameters of deprotonation. They also affect the activation parameters, which is shown by a distribution of ΔH≠ and ΔS≠ values, but do not influence the value of ΔG≠.     

Evaluating hydrogen-bond propensity,hydrogen-bond coordination and hydrogen-bond energy as tools for predicting the outcome of attempted co-crystallisations

ABSTRACT

Two different structure-informatics based methods and one approach based on hydrogen-bond interaction energies were evaluated for their abilities to predict the experimental outcomes of attempted co-crystallisations between two known drug molecules, Nevirapine and Diclofenac, and a series of potential co-formers. The hydrogen-bond propensity (HBP) tool gave the correct result in 26 out of 30 cases, whereas a hydrogen-bond coordination (HBC) method predicted the correct outcome in 22 out of 30 cases. Finally, calculated hydrogen-bond energies (HBE) using a simple electrostatic model, gave the correct result in 23 out of 30 experiments. In those cases, where the crystal structure of a co-crystal of either Nevirapine or Diclofenac was known, we also examined how well the three methods predicted which primary hydrogen-bond interactions were present in the crystal structure. HBP correctly predicted 6 out of 6 cases, HBC could not predict any of the synthon formations correctly, and HBE successfully predicted 1 out of 6 cases.     

Inclusion compounds of thiourea and peralkylated ammonium salts. Part II. Hydrogen-bonded host lattices built of thiourea and cyclic dimeric bicarbonate moieties

New inclusion complexes R₄N⁺HCO ₃ ^– ·x(NH₂)₂CS·yH₂O (1, R=C₂H₅,x=1,y=1;2, R=n–C₃H₇,x=2,y=0;3, R=n–C₄H₉,x=3,y=0) have been prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallography. Crystal data, MoK radiation:1, space groupPbca,Z=8,a=8.839(2),b=14.930(3),c=24.852(5) Å, andR _F=0.063 for 1419 observed data;2, space groupC222₁,Z=8,a=8.521(3),b=16.941(4),c=32.022(7) Å,R _F=0.054 for 1689 observed data;3, space group ,Z=2,a=9.553(2),b=12.313(3),c=14.228(4) Å, =90.44(2),=103.11(2), =110.12(2)°,R _F=0.044 for 3925 observed data. In the crystal structure of1, the thiourea molecules form hydrogen-bonded zigzag ribbons running parallel to thea axis, and the cyclic dimeric bicarbonate moieties (HCO ₃ ^– )₂ together with water molecules behave likewise. A puckered layer is formed by further lateral hydrogen bonding between these two types of ribbons, and the (C₂H₅)₄N⁺ cations occupy the space between adjacent layers. In the crystal structure of2, the thiourea ribbons are cross-linked orthogonally by (HCO ₃ ^– )₂ unitsvia N–H...O hydrogen bonds to form a composite double layer. Half of the cations are enclosed within and the other half sandwiched between these double layers. In the crystal structure of3, the thiourea molecules form puckered double ribbons running in the [110] direction. The host framework is constructed by cross-linking the double ribbons with bridging bicarbonate dimers, yielding two channel systems aligned parallel to [100] and [111] that accommodate the cationic guests. The structural relationship between the present complexes and the classical thiourea channel adducts is discussed. Supplementary Data relating to this article have been deposited with the British Library as Supplementary Publication No. SUP 82178 (44 pages).     

The speed of sound in mixtures of the major sea salts. A test of Young's rule for adiabatic PVT properties

The relative sound speed of mixtures of aqueous solutions of NaCl–MgSO₄ and MgCl₂–Na₂SO₄ at I=0.1 and 0.5m have been determined at 5, 15, and 25°C and pressures to 1000 bars. The resulting sound speeds, adiabatic and apparent molal compressibilities have been compared to results estimated from binary solutions using an additivity principle — Young's rule. The estimated sound speeds agree with the measured values for the NaCl–MgSO₄ system to ±0.15 m-sec^–1 and for the Na₂SO₄–MgCL₂ system to ±0.20 m-sec^–1. The deviations increase with increasing ionic strength (±0.08 m-sec^–1 at I=0.1 and ±0.25 m-sec^–1 at I=0.5 m).The sound speed of seawater have also been estimated from 0 to 40°C, 0.1 to 0.7 ionic strength and 0 to 1000 bars. The estimates were found to be in good agreement (±0.4 m-sec^–1) with the measured values.These results indicate that reasonable estimates of the adiabatic PVT properties of dilute mixtures of electrolyte solutions can be made using the additivity principle, without excess mixing terms.     

Potentiometric and spectrophotometric pKa determination of water-insoluble compounds: validation study in a new cosolvent system

In this paper the validation of pK_a determination in MDM-water mixtures is presented. The MDM-water mixture is a new multicomponent cosolvent mixture (consisting of equal volumes of methanol, dioxane and acetonitrile, as organic solvents) that dissolves a wide range of poorly water-soluble compounds. The cosolvent dissociation constants (p_sK_a) of 50 chemically diverse compounds (acids, bases and ampholytes) were measured in 15-56 wt% MDM-water mixtures by potentiometric or spectrophotometric titration and the aqueous pK_a values obtained by extrapolation. Three different extrapolation procedures were compared in order to choose the best extrapolation in MDM-water mixture using a sub-set of 30 water-soluble compounds. The extrapolated results are in good agreement with pK_a values measured in aqueous medium. No significant difference was found among these extrapolation procedures thus the widely used Yasuda-Shedlovsky plot was proposed for MDM cosolvent also. Further we also present that the single point estimation based on measurement in 20%/v MDM-mixture using a general calibration equation may be suitable for rapid pK_a determination in the early phase of drug research.     

Effect of salts on the excited state of pyranine as determined by steady-state fluorescence

Pyranine is a pH-sensitive fluorescent probe useful in the pH range of 4.5–8, and it has been extensively employed to determine pH inside cells, membranes and membrane models. The fluorescent properties of pyranine are a consequence of the excited states ROH^* and RO^−*. The prototropic equilibrium of these excited species has a much lower than that of the ground state. In this paper we determined the (1.42 ± 0.06) and the relative quantum yield of pyranine in the pH range of 1–8 by analyzing the component peaks of the steady-state of the dye's emission spectrum. As pyranine is very sensitive to the medium we studied the influence of salts formed by mono-, di-, and trivalent ions on the apparent . In all cases, the presence of salts reduced the apparent to varying degrees depending on the valence of the cations. The strategy used to obtain this information was a dual emission ratiometric method at 441 and 511 nm after excitation at 350 nm. The results obtained demonstrate that pyranine is suitable to determine the pH of aqueous solutions in the range of 1–3.5.     

On the synthesis of hypericin by oxidative trimethylemodin anthrone and emodin anthrone dimerization: Isohypericin

Summary The base catalyzed oxidative dimerization of emodin anthrone exclusively yields hypericin. However, on oxidative dimerization of trimethylemodinanthrone a mixture of hexamethylhypericin and hexamethylisohypericin was obtained. Chromatographic separation of the hexabenzoyl derivatives was achieved, and by saponification about equal amounts of hypericin and isohypericrin were produced. Isohypericin could be characterized for the first time by its spectroscopic data and its protonation and deprotonationpK _a andpK _a ^* values.

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Zur Synthese von Hypericin durch oxidative Dimerisierung von Trimethylemodinanthron und Emodinanthron: Isohypericin

Zusammenfassung Die basenkatalysierte oxidative Dimerisierung von Emodinanthron liefert ausschließlich Hypericin. Oxidative Dimerisierung von Trimethylemodinanthron ergibt jedoch ein Gemisch von Hexamethylhypericin und Hexamethylisohypericin. Die Hexabenzoylderivate wurden chromatographisch getrennt, und Hypericin und Isohypericin konnten aus diesen Derivaten durch Verseifung freigesetzt werden. Isohypercin konnte erstmals durch seine spektroskopischen Daten und seine Protonierungs- und Deprotonierungs-pK _aundpK _a ^* -Werte charakterisiert werden.

     

A theory of molecules in molecules IV. Application to the Hydrogen Bonding Interaction in NH3 · H2O

The theory of molecules in molecules introduced in previous articles is applied to study the hydrogen bonding interaction between an ammonia molecule as proton acceptor and a water molecule as proton donor. The localized orbitals which are assumed to be least affected by the formation of the hydrogen bond are transferred unaltered from calculations on the fragments NH₃ and H₂O, the remaining orbitals are recalculated. A projection operator is used to obtain orthogonality to the transferred orbitals. Additional approximations have been introduced in order to be able to save computational time. These approximations can be justified and are seen to lead to binding energies and bond lengths which are in satisfactory agreement with the SCF values. The point charge approximation for the calculation of the interaction energy between the two sets of transferred localized orbitals is, however, not applicable in this case. An energy analysis of the effect of the hydrogen bond on the localized orbitals of the two fragments is given.     

Application of variable anti-connectivity index to active sites. Modelling pK a values of aliphatic monocarboxylic acids

A partial distance-weighted variable anti-connectivity topological index was introduced for modelling pK _a values of 31 aliphatic carboxylic acids and haloalkyl-carboxylic acids. The partial distance-weighted variable anti-connectivity index showed superior modelling capabilities compared with the index calculated from the complete graph, because it is capable of accounting correctly for the intramolecular interactions of unconnected vertices to specific bond strengths (active site), thereby improving the RMS_CV error by about 30% (0.221 pK _a units).     

Spectrophotometric determination of the acid dissociation constants for cacodylic acid and p-Nitrophenol at elevated temperatures

Using 2.5-dinitrophenol as an optical indicator, the pK_a of cacodylic acid were spectrophotometrically determined at elevated temperatures under saturation vapor pressures. The result is pK_a = -26.41 + 1296/T + 4.973 InT whereT is in Kelvin. In a similar way, the pK_a ofp-nitrophenol were obtained up to 200‡C giving pK_a = -24.82 + 2135/T + 4.353 InT From these results, several thermodynamic functions of cacodylic acid andp- nitrophenol were calculated.     

Geometry versus basicity of bilatrienes: Stretched and helical protonated biliverdins

Summary The ease of protonation of bilatrienes at the pyrrolenine nitrogen critically depends on their conformation. The biliverdin2 being constrained to a helical (Z, Z, Z, syn, syn, syn) geometry by its four link chain is ca. three orders of magnitude less basic than flexible open-chain bilatrienes like biliverdin-IX dimethyl ester (1), which is shown to adopt a stretched conformation in its monoprotonated form. These results are obtained by a comparative investigation of the titrations of1 and2 with sulfuric acid in methanol and methanol-water by means of UV-VIS and NMR spectroscopy.

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Zusammenhang zwischen Basizität und Konformation von Bilatrienen: Gestreckte und helikale protonierte Biliverdine

Zusammenfassung Die Leichtigkeit der Protonierung von Biliverdinen am Pyrrolenin-Stickstoff hängt von ihrer Konformation ab. Das Biliverdin2, das durch eine viergliedrige Brücke in einer helikalen (Z, Z, Z, syn, syn, syn-Geometrie festgehalten wird, ist um ca. drei Größenordnungen weniger basisch als flexible offenkettige Bilatriene, wie der Biliverdin-IX-dimethylester (1), der — wie gezeigt wird — in seiner monoprotonierten Form eine gestreckte Konformation einnimmt. Diese Ergebnisse werden durch eine vergleichende Untersuchung der Titrationen von1 und2 mit Schwefelsäure in Methanol bzw. Methanol-Wasser-Gemischen mithilfe der UV-VIS- und NMR-Spektroskopie erhalten.

     

Determination of chloroacetic acids in water by capillary zone electrophoresis with field-amplified sample injection

A simple and sensitive method has been developed for the determination of chloroacetic acids and acetic acid in water using capillary zone electrophoresis under modified electroosmotic flow with indirect UV detection. Potassium hydrogen phthalate at pH 5.40 was used as background electrolyte (BGE), and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide was used as electroosmotic flow modifier. Field-amplified sample injection (FASI) method was used to enhance the sensitivity. Results showed that the limit of detection for these analytes was enhanced more than 15-fold and the repeatabilities were good with relative standard deviations (RSDs %) of migration time and corrected peak areas being below 0.33%, 4.45% (intra-day) and 0.87%, 9.67% (inter-day), respectively. An off-line liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) process with methyl tert-butyl ether was carried out to detect these compounds in water samples. The dissociation constants of acetic acid and monochloroacetic acid (MCA) were determined with two methods and the results obtained were consistent with the reference values.